632 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



quence of this report the Government invited the co-operation 

 of France, Belgium, Holland, Sweden and Norway, and Den- 

 mark in devising a remedy, suggesting that separate agree- 

 ments might be made for the purpose. At the instance of 

 Holland, it was agreed to have one joint convention, and a 

 conference of the North Sea Powers was convened at The 

 Hague, in 1881, to negotiate it, Germany, at her own request, 

 being included. 1 



In the proceedings at the conference the question that caused 

 the greatest difficulty and discussion was the definition of the 

 territorial waters or exclusive fishery limits. The British 

 Government, in curious contrast to their action earlier in the 

 century, desired to avoid any definition at all. The memor- 

 andum prepared by them as the basis of the deliberations, 

 stipulated that the convention should " apply to the high seas 

 generally outside the fishery limits of the countries joining in 

 the convention." This somewhat vague, not to say illogical, 

 phraseology did not meet with the approval of the other 

 Governments. It was objected to by France in particular. 

 That Power had accepted the invitation to the conference on 

 condition that the regulation to be agreed upon should be 

 restricted to police rules intended to prevent conflicts between 

 fishermen of different nationalities, " and to secure to them the 

 free practice of their calling in the common waters of the North 

 Sea." In making a special convention dealing with the open sea 

 which was common to all, it seemed to it impossible to do other- 

 wise than begin by defining the limits within which it was 

 intended to operate. 2 The French delegates at the conference 

 therefore proposed that the extent of the territorial waters 

 should, for fishery purposes, be defined in precise terms, and 

 they endeavoured further to get the limit made as contracted 

 as possible. They urged that the boundary should be fixed 

 everywhere at three geographical miles from low- water mark, 

 whatever might be the configuration of the coast. As to fixing 

 a larger measurement for bays, as in the Anglo-French con- 



1 Correspondence respecting the Conference at The Hague and the Convention 

 of the 6th May 1882, relative to the Police of the Fisheries in the North Sea. 

 Parl. Papers, Commercial, No. 24, 1882. 



2 M. Barthe"lemy St Hilaire to Lord Lyons, 2nd July 1881 ; M. de Freycinet to 

 M. Challemel-Lacour, 2nd March 1882. 



