BAIT-FISH EXPANSION- AND CONFLICT 235 



purse-seining, and confirmed future agreements which might Thcna nav 

 be made locally, but was otherwise the same in its contents n lf* t 

 as last year. But its nature was different. In the first place arbitration 



it was the prelude to arbitration. Arbitration had been a * a 8 rc . cd 



on, creating 



suggested on September 3, 1906. by the Earl of Elgin to \hefriction in 

 Newfoundland Government; and on June 15, 1907, the fa 

 latter consented to refer the question of jurisdiction to 

 the Plague Tribunal, provided that all other questions which 

 could be raised under the Treaty, including those mentioned 

 ante pp. 135, 136, were similarly referred. On July 12, 1907, 

 the American Ambassador also suggested arbitration, which 

 was accepted by the Earl of Elgin, and the modus was merely 

 tacked on to the agreement for arbitration. Fifteen years 

 ago an Anglo-French modus was similarly tacked on to an 

 agreement for arbitration, and the French wanted to narrow 

 and the Newfoundlanders to widen the terms of reference, so 

 that no arbitration took place. Consequently pessimists fore- 

 told that the temporary modus would become perpetual. The 

 Newfoundland Government, having had no little experience 

 of the gradual conversion of annual into perpetual things, 

 proved intransigent, and refused to give legislative effect 

 to the modus. The English Government then issued an 

 Order in Council, which derived its force from the same 

 source as that from which every anti : bait Act derived its 

 penalties, namely, from the English Act of 1819, and which 

 annulled the provisions summarized in clauses (a) and (c) of 

 the Act of 1905, so far as regarded American vessels, and 

 made the consent of a British naval officer the condition pre- 

 cedent of service of process on ships, or seizure of ships' 

 boats or tackle, which were engaged in the exercise or alleged 

 exercise of the Treaty Rights. Under the provisions of the 

 Act of 1819, the Order in Council prevails over local law, 

 but it would seem that proceedings against offenders against 

 local laws like Crane and Dubois are still possible, if instituted 

 against them after they have left the foreign ships on which they 



