18 CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



not so framed as to give an advantage to the former over the latter 

 class,' and 



(c.) Unless their appropriateness, necessity, reasonableness, and 

 fairness ~be determined by the United States and Great Britain by 

 common accord, and the United States concurs in their enforcement. 



NATURE OF THE QUESTION. 



Stated in general terms, the question is, whether certain nationals, 

 with treaty liberty to enter alien territory and do certain acts there, 

 are exempt from all the local laws, applicable to persons engaged in 

 those acts, in force in that alien territory, unless their appropriate- 

 ness, necessity, reasonableness, and fairness have been passed upon, 

 and their enforcement concurred in by the Government of their own 

 country. 



FORMULATION OF UNITED STATES CLAIM IN 1878. 



This exemption was first formally claimed by the United States in 

 1878, on grounds which are set out in a report made by Mr. Evarts 

 (App., pp. 269-277), then United States Secretary of State, to the 

 President of the United States of date the 17th May, 1880. (App., 

 p. 280.) 



The controversy in Avhich this occurred did not, however, relate to 

 the treaty now under consideration, but to a treaty made in 1871, by 

 which the North American coast fisheries of both countries had been 

 mutually thrown open. 



The incident out of which the controversy arose and the controversy 

 itself will be noticed elsewhere in this Case. It is sufficient for the 

 present purpose to state that the incident was closed, and the particu- 

 lar controversy terminated, without any agreement upon, or determi- 

 nation of the question then formulated; the conclusion then reached 

 having been without prejudice to the contentions and opinions of 

 either party in respect of that question. 



With the exception of this incident, nothing occurred during 

 21 the very considerable period that elapsed between 1818, the 

 date of the treaty now under discussion, and 1905, to cast any 

 doubt upon the principle now maintained by Great Britain, or upon 

 its unqualified applicability to the rights and obligations arising 

 out of that treaty. This will, hereafter, be more fully noticed and 

 developed. 



REFORMULATION IN 1906. 



The question is now directly raised for decision. The doctrine 

 has been reformulated on behalf of the United States, in the despatch 

 from Mr. Root to the United States Ambassador in London of the 

 30th June, 1906. This despatch is printed in full in the Appendix. 



