422 NEW ENGLAND FISHERIES 



it is evident that the three mile rule is not applied to bays 

 strictly or systematically either by the United States or by 

 any other Power; 



(g) It has been recognized by the United States that 

 bays stand apart, and that in respect of them territorial 

 jurisdiction may be exercised farther than the marginal 

 belt in the case of Delaware bay by the report of the United 

 States Attorney General of May 19th 1793 ; and the letter 

 of Mr. JEFFERSON to Mr. GENET of Nov. 8th 1793 declares 

 the bays of the United States generally to be, "as being 

 landlocked, within the body of the United States.' 



5. In this latter regard it is further contended by the 

 United States, that such exceptions only should be 

 made from the application of the three mile rule 

 to bays as are sanctioned by conventions and es- 

 tablished usage ; that all exceptions for which the 

 United States of America were responsible are so 

 sanctioned; and that His Majesty's Government 

 are unable to provide evidence to show that the bays 

 concerned by the Treaty of 1818 could be claimed 

 as exceptions on these grounds either generally, or 

 except possibly in one or two cases, specifically. 



But the Tribunal while recognizing that conventions and 

 established usage might be considered as the basis for 

 claiming as territorial those bays which on this ground 

 might be called historic bays, and that such claim should 

 be held valid in the absence of any principle of interna- 

 tional law on the subject ; nevertheless is unable to apply 

 this, a contrario, so as to subject the bays in question to 

 the three mile rule, as desired by the United States : 



(a) Because Great Britain has during this controversy 

 asserted a claim to these bays generally, and has enforced 

 such claim specifically in statutes or otherwise, in regard to 



