“'PERRITORIAL SEAU 887

_ Subject to the special. case of historical bays, the United States
supported the 10 mile rule at the Conference of 1980 (Acts of Con-
ference, 197-199) and the Second Sub-Committee adopted the prin-
ciple on which the United States relied (Acts of Conference, 217-218).
It was understood by most delegations that, as a corollary to the adop-
tion of this principle, a system would be evolved to assure that slight
 Indentations would not be treated as bays (Acts of Conference, 218).
‘The United States proposed a method to determine whether a par-
ticular indentation of the coast should be regarded as a bay to which
the 10 mile rule would apply (Acts of Conference, 197-199). The
Second Sub-Committee set forth the American proposal and a com-
promise proposal offered by the French delegation in its report,
but gave no opinion regarding these systems. (Acts of Conference,
218-219.) | :
(dd) With respect to mouths of rivers which do not flow into estu-
aries, the Second Sub-Committee agreed to take for the base line a
line following the general direction of the coast and drawn across the
mouth of the river, whatever its width. (Acts of Conference, 220.)

(¢) With respect to. the measurement of territorial waters when
rocks, reefs, mudbanks, sandbanks, islands or groups of islands lie
oif the coast, the United States took the position at the Conference
‘that separate bodies of land which were capable of use should be
regarded as islands, irrespective of their distance from the mainland,
while separate bodies of land, whether or not capable of use, but stand-
ing above the level of low tide, should be regarded _as islands if they
‘were within three nautical miles of the mainland. Each island, as
defined, was to be surrounded by its own belt of territorial waters
measured in the same manner as in the case of the mainland. (Acts of
Oonference,200.) REE
_ The report of the Second Sub-Committee defined an island as a sepa-
rate body of land, surrounded by water, which was permanently above
high water mark, and approved the principle that an island, so defined,
had its own belt of territorial sea. (Acts of Conference, 219.) While
the Second Sub-Committee declined to define as islands natural ap-
pendages of the sea-bed which were only exposed at low tide, it agreed,
nevertheless, that such appendages, provided they were situated within
the territorial sea of the mainland, should be taken into account in
delimiting territorial waters. (Acts of Conference, 217.) a

(7) The problem of delimiting territorial waters may arise with
respect to a strait, whether it be a strait between the mainland and
offshore islands or between two mainlands. The United States took
the position at the Conference that if a strait connected two seas
having the character of high seas, and both entrances did not exceed
‘Six nautical miles in width, all of the waters of the strait should be
considered territorial waters of the coastal state. In the case of open-
ings wider than six miles, the belt of territorial waters should be
measured in the ordinary way. (Acts of Conference, 200-201.) The
report of the Second Sub-Committee supported this position with

the qualification that if the result of this determination of territorial
waters left an area of high sea not exceeding two miles in breadth
surrounded by territorial sea, this area could be assimilated to the

territorial sea. (Acts of Conference, 220.)