740 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



As soon as these proceedings came to the knowledge of the 

 English trawl-owners, the National Sea Fisheries Protection 

 Association made a representation on the subject to the Foreign 

 Office, and in consequence of this the Danish Government 

 took action, and the law was prevented from coming into 

 operation. 1 And any such action in the future was effectually 

 prevented by the immediate negotiation of an international 

 convention in which a three-mile limit was fixed for Iceland 

 and Faroe (see p. 647) so far as concerned British fishermen. 

 Then with respect to the coasts of Spain and Portugal, where 

 the available grounds are narrow, amounting altogether between 

 the three-mile limit and the 200-metre line to 15,460 square 

 miles (see fig. 28), intimation has been made by the British 

 Foreign Office, at the instance of the National Sea Fisheries 

 Protection Association, that jurisdiction will not be recognised 

 over British vessels beyond three miles from the shore, and the 

 national regulations in regard to trawling are thus rendered 

 comparatively ineffective. With regard to Norway, moreover, 

 where the area between the three-mile limit and the 200-metre 

 line exceeds 30,000 square miles, it appears that soon after her 

 separation from Sweden, in 1905, the British Foreign Office 

 made the proposal that she should join in the North Sea Con- 

 vention (which, along with Sweden, she refused to do in 1882), 

 so that the ordinary three-mile limit might be imposed along 

 the Norwegian coast; but the proposal was rejected. 2 



In view of the evidence that has been adduced, the recom- 

 mendations of the various Committees of Parliament that 

 have inquired into the subject, and the statements made in 

 the House of Commons, it may be assumed that an inter- 

 national conference of the Powers bordering the North Sea 

 will be convened, to consider how fishery regulations may be 

 made more effective, whether by extension of the limits of 

 exclusive fishery or otherwise, as soon as the results of the 

 international fishery investigations justify that course. 



1 Hansard, vol. 169, p. 996; vol. 196, p. 217. I have been courteously in- 

 formed by Mr Bjarni Saemundsson, of Reykjavik, a well-known authority on the 

 fisheries of Iceland, that no laws proposing to extend the territorial waters were 

 passed, or proposed, by the Althing. 



2 Hansard, vol. 170, p. 786. 



