EXHIBIT M.
St. Petersburg, December 26, 1894.
Your Excellency: I am directed by my Government to present to the Imperial Government the claims of the owners, master, mate, and hunter of the American schooner C. H. White, seized by the Russian cruiser Zabiaca on the 15th day of July, 1892. These claims are fully set forth in the inclosed copies of the following documents:
- 1.
- A memorial of the Eagle Fishing Company, of San Francisco Cal., owners of the schooner C. H. White, complaining of the seizure of their vessel.
- 2.
- A memorial of Lawrence M. Furman, master, complaining of his capture, imprisonment, and illtreatment by the Russian authorities at the time of the seizure and afterwards.
- 3.
- A memorial of Andrew Ronning, mate, to the same effect.
- 4.
- A memorial of Neils Wolfgang, hunter, to the same effect.
It appears that the schooner was owned by the Eagle Fishing Company, an American corporation, the shareholders of which were at the time of the seizure, and still are, American citizens. Indeed, all of the claimants and officers as well as all the white men of the crew, except Julias Furman, at the time of the seizure were, and still are, citizens of the United States.
The schooner regularly cleared from San Francisco May 7, 1892, bound on a fishing and hunting voyage to the North Pacific Ocean, having on board a fishing and hunting outfit and a crew of 10 white men and 4 Indians.
She took neither fish nor seals in Russian waters, nor does she seem to have ever visited Russian waters. Yet in latitude 54° 18’ N., longitude 167° 18’ E., a point more than 80 miles from Copper or Bering Islands, and of course even more remote from the mainland or any other Rssian island, she was on the 15th day of July, 1892, seized, as before stated, by the Russian war cruiser Zabiaca.
The officers and crew were treated as prisoners, and the schooner was towed by her captors to Bering Island. Thence she was sent in charge of a prize crew to Petropaulovsky, and her owners are informed that she is now in the possession and use of the Russian Government.
The protracted injustice and cruelty alleged by these men is recited in the inclosed memorials with harrowing particularity.
The master states that the Russian officers, presumably to cover up such transactions, compelled him in his helpless condition, and with the threat to send him to Siberia, to sign a paper in the Russian language, which he did not understand.
[Page 245]My Government is very far from having any desire to protect from just punishment any of its citizens who enter the limits of another power and violate its laws. Nor do I imagine for a moment that the Imperial Government is without the most proper concern in regard to the conduct of its officers in those distant parts of the world. But here is a case where our citizens seem to have been engaged in a perfectly lawful pursuit, and under circumstances that do not touch in any degree the rights, interests, or jurisdiction of Russia. Every right, interest, and sentiment seems to have been totally disregarded.
Other memorials of this character, from the same quarter, have been presented by my Government; and I must ask your excellency to have this and similar cases pending made the subject of prompt and searching inquiry, to the end that such wrongs, if these allegations be true, may be prevented in the future, and that justice may be done for the past.
I avail myself of this occasion to renew to your excellency the assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
To His Excellency M. de Giers,
Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs,
etc.