EXHIBIT C.

Note from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia to the Minister of the United States of North America at St. Petersburg, January 5, 1896, No. 49.

I have had the honor to receive your note of the 5th (17th) December, 1895, in which, by order of your Government, you ask to be informed what are the limits over which the Imperial cabinet reserves unto itself the right of jurisdiction in the waters of Bering Sea.

The Imperial Government, having entered upon an agreement with that of the United States under date of April 22 (4th May), 1894, fixing at 10 maritime miles along the Russian coast, and at 30 miles around the Commander and Tulienew islands as the prohibited zone for fur-seal fishing, the determination of the limits within which the Russian Government reserves the right of jurisdiction in this matter can only conform with the stipulations of the agreement now in force.

The point of view which the Imperial Government has not ceased to take in this affair has always been that of the interest it has in suppressing in a manner as efficacious as possible illegal fur-sealing in the immediate neighborhood of Russian possessions; and we do not doubt that the United States Government is equally impressed with the necessity for that suppression, because the abuses of that industry might result so prejudicially for all of the countries interested in the complete destruction of that race of animals.

Before the arbitration tribunal of Paris, of which mention is made in the aforesaid note, the United States has even claimed a right of jurisdiction still more extended.

If it is true that the Imperial Government, as you will kindly note, was not one of the parties between whom arose the difference submitted to arbitration—that is to say, England and the United States—it is no less justified in expecting that the Cabinet at Washington which sustained before the arbitration tribunal the broadest doctrines will not depart from those broad views in the solution of the affairs of the seizure of American vessels to which allusion is made in the aforesaid note, although previous to the conclusion of the agreement of 1894.

We are convinced that the Federal Government, in view of the principles which it sustained before the arbitration tribunal of Paris, will recognize the case of force majeure and the right of legitimate defense, in virtue of which the vessels engaged in destructive sealing within the zone of 30 miles around Commander Islands were captured—rights which the United States did not hesitate to sanction later by a dual agreement.

Please to accept, etc.

Lobanow.