Mr. Peirce to Mr. Hay.
St. Petersburg, August 3, 1900.
[Mr. Peirce reports the receipt, on the 1st instant, from the Russian minister for foreign affairs, of the final draft of the protocol of arbitration of Bering Sea claims of citizens of the United States, with a clause inserted admitting the introduction of all evidence which has already been presented, or which has appeared in the correspondence between the official representatives of the two high contracting powers; and that a clause has been added providing that the decision of the arbitrator shall be rendered in French, that language being recognized as the official language of the arbitration. With the exceptions noted the draft of the protocol is identical with that inclosed with dispatch No. 234, of June 6. As the Russian Government is ready to sign the protocol at once, Mr. Peirce asks if he is authorized by the Department to sign.]