BEPOET OP THE COMMISSIONER OP PISHERIES. 53 



Islands, and other parts of the British maritime Provinces under 

 the treaty of 1818. Under the terms of an agreement signed at 

 Washington on January 27, 1909, by representatives of the British 

 and United States Governments, it was decided to submit to the 

 permanent court of arbitration at The Hague the principal ques- 

 tions that have arisen in connection with the interpretation of that 

 treaty; and it is a cause for congi-atulation that this long-standing 

 dispute has now been settled by arbitration. 



In view of the importance and historical interest of this subject, a 

 brief review of its principal features may appropriately be given in 

 this report. 



The treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, 

 in 1783, had as its third article the following: 



It is agreed that the people of the United States shall continue to enjoy 

 unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand Bank, and on all 

 the other banks of Newfoundland; also in the Gulph of Saint Lawrence and 

 at all other places in the sea where the inhabitants of both countries used at 

 any time heretofore to fish. And also that the inhabitants of the United States 

 shall have liberty to take fish of every kind on such part of the coast of New- 

 foundland as British fishermen shall use (but not to dry or cure the same on 

 that island) and also on the coasts, bays and creeks of all other of His Britannic 

 Majesty's dominions in America ; and that the American fishermen shall have 

 liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours and creeks 

 of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands and Labrador, so long as the same shall 

 remain unsettled; but so soon as the same or either of them shall be settled, 

 it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settle- 

 ments, without a previous agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, 

 proprietors or possessors of the ground. 



After the close of the War of 1812 the question arose as to whether 

 the fishery provisions of the treaty of 1783 had been abrogated by the 

 w^ar. Great Britain contended that this part of the treaty was no 

 longer in force, but the United States refused to agree to such a con- 

 tention. With the two Governments thus assuming opposite views 

 on the question, the prosecution of the fisheries necessarily led to 

 more or less serious conflicts of authority and protracted diplomatic 

 conference and correspondence, the outcome of which Avas the nego- 

 tiation and adoption in 1818 of a new treaty. The important article 

 of this treaty was as follows : 



Whereas differences have arisen respecting the Liberty claimed by the United 

 States for the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry and cure fish on Certain Coasts, 

 Bays, Harbours, and Creeks of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions in America, 

 it is agreed between the High Conti'acting Parties, that the inhabitants of the 

 said United States shall have forever, in common with the Subjects of His 

 Brittanic Majesty, the Liberty to take fish of every kind on that part of the 

 Southern Coast of Newfoundland which extends from Cape Ray to the Rameau 

 Islands, on the Western and the Northern Coast of Newfoundland, from the 

 said Cape Ray to the Quirpon Islands, on the shores of the Magdalen Islands, 

 and also on the Coasts, Bays, Harbours and Creeks from Mount Joly on the 



