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 necessity in order to secure the execution of the stipulations of the Treaty of Paris.

The Treaty of Berlin is silent on the subject of the Straits; but the topic was mentioned at the sittings of the Congress, and Lord Salisbury took occasion to procure the insertion in its 18th Protocol of the following declaration:— Considering that the Treaty of Berlin will modify an important part of the arrangements sanctioned by the Treaty of Paris of 1856, and that the interpretation of Art. 2 of the Treaty of London, which is dependent on the Treaty of Paris, may thus become a matter of dispute;

I declare, on behalf of England, that the obligations of Her Britannic Majesty relating to the closing of the Straits, do not go further than an engagement with the Sultan to respect in this matter His Majesty's independent determinations in conformity with the spirit of existing Treaties.

At the following sitting, Count Schouvaloff demanded the insertion in the Protocol of the following counter-declaration:— "The Plenipotentiaries of Russia, without being able exactly to appreciate the meaning of the proposition of the second Plenipotentiary of Great Britain, respecting the closing of the Straits, restrict themselves to demanding, on their part, the insertion in the Protocol of the observation: that, in their opinion, the principle of the closing of the Straits is an European principle, and that the stipulations concluded in this respect in 1841, 1856, and 1871, confirmed at present by the Treaty of Berlin, are binding on the part of all the Powers, in accordance with the spirit and letter of the existing Treaties, not only as regards the Sultan, but also as regards all the Powers signatory to these transactions."

V. .—By Article 11 of the Treaty of Paris, the Black Sea is declared open to the mercantile marine of every nation; and, by Article 12, commerce is to be 'free from any impediment' in its ports and waters. The former article was abrogated by Article 1 of the Treaty of London of 1871, but the latter remains in force, and is supplemented by Article 3 of that Treaty, which declares that 'the Black Sea remains open as heretofore to the mercantile marine of all nations.'

The so-called 'neutralisation' of the Black Sea, effected