QUESTION ONE. 21 



6. Subjection to British legislative control was inherent in, and 

 formed an essential part of, the very subject-matter of the treaty 

 the taking of fish in British waters. 



7. The effect of the treaty stipulation was to confer upon inhabit- 

 ants of the United States a liberty to participate in this subject- 

 matter, with its necessary subjection to legislative control. 



8. The language of the treaty does not suggest that the conferring 

 of this liberty involved any surrender of control, or any alteration in 

 the characteristic qualities of the subject-matter. On the contrary, 

 the liberty granted was expressed to be a liberty in common with 

 British fishermen, as to whom there could be no pretence that the 

 treaty abandoned any attribute of sovereignty or changed any quality 

 of its subject-matter. 



9. The treaty simply operated as an agreement by which Great 

 Britain undertook not to exercise her sovereignty so as to nullify the 

 liberty conferred by the treaty to participate in taking fish in British 

 waters, or so as to make unfair discrimination in favour of her own 

 subjects, or against American inhabitants resorting to the treaty 



waters. 

 24 10. By the very fact of resorting to the treaty waters in 



assertion of the treaty liberty, American inhabitants come 

 under the obligation to observe the regulative legislation found in 

 operation there from time to time. 



11. The contention of the United States appears to be that the 

 British Government cannot make any regulations, however necessary 

 for the preservation of the fisheries, without the concurrence of the 

 United States. It is not. and cannot be contended that the United 

 States can themselves make such regulations, and it is submitted that 

 it is impossible to find in the treaty any provision that the sovereignty 

 of His Majesty, in respect of the territory in question, is to be subject 

 to the veto of the United States Government. Such a provision 

 would be contrary to all principle, and unworkable in practice. 



HISTORY OF THE QUESTION. 

 ABSENCE OF DIFFICULTY, 1783-1878. 



From 1783 to 1878 British and Colonial laws, regulative of the 

 fisheries, were enforced against British and American fishermen alike, 

 without any contention being raised that American fishermen were 

 exempt from their operation, or that, for their control, the concur- 

 rence of the United States was necessary. 



According to present United States contention, regulations should 

 have been drawn up in 1783, and again in 1818, and submitted to 

 the United States for approval. That was not done. Nobody sug- 



92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol. 4 3 



