THE FISHERY CONVENTIONS 639 



exclusive fishery limits. In this Act the stipulation in the 

 second article of the convention, as to the freedom of navigation 

 and anchorage in territorial waters on the part of foreign fishing- 

 boats, received a limiting definition. The clause in question was 

 inserted in the convention at the instance of France, and was 

 accepted with some reluctance by the British delegates, who 

 agreed to it in general terms only, without the recognition of a 

 right. 1 By the Act foreign fishing-boats were prohibited from 

 entering the exclusive fishery limits of the British Islands 

 except for purposes recognised by international law, or by any 

 treaty or arrangement in force between this country and any 

 foreign state, or for any lawful purpose. If a foreign boat did 

 enter, it was to return outside the limits as soon as the purpose 

 for which it entered had been answered, and fishing or at- 

 tempting to fish within the limits was, of course, forbidden 

 under penalties. 



The definition of the exclusive fishery limits in the North 

 Sea Convention differed in two respects from that contained in 

 the previous conventions with France. The rule for the 

 measurement of bays was modified, and the dependent islands 

 and banks were expressly included as part of the coast from 

 which the limit should be measured. In the Anglo-French 

 conventions of 1839 and 1867 bays which did not exceed ten 

 miles in width at the mouths were comprised in the reserved 

 waters, and the three-mile limit was measured from the line 

 joining the " headlands." Thus some bays whose width at the 

 mouth, or between their headlands, exceeded ten miles were 

 deprived of the benefit of the principle applied to bays and 

 came under the three-mile rule, even although at a small dis- 

 tance within the entrance the width might not exceed ten miles. 

 Since all bays have not headlands, the French proposal at The 

 Hague conference to substitute " the two extreme points of the 

 bay " for that term was an improvement. Still better was the 

 definition finally adopted, to place the base-line at the first 

 point nearest the entrance where the width did not exceed ten 

 miles. The specific inclusion of islands removed such difficul- 

 ties as were raised in 1853 by a French commodore at the 

 Fame Islands (see p. 618), though it had long been estab- 

 lished in connection with the rights of neutrals that islands 



1 Messrs Kennedy and Trevor to Mr Farrer, 31st Oct. 1881. Doc. cit. 



