51 QUESTION TWO. 



AMERICAN FISHERMEN. 



Have the inhabitants of the United States, while exercising the 

 liberties referred to in said article, a right to employ, as members of 

 the -fishing crews of their vessels, persons not inhabitants of the 

 United States? 



PRELIMINARY. 



By article one of the treaty of 1818, the liberty to take fish on the 

 treaty coasts is given to "the inhabitants of the United States." 

 The short question is whether those inhabitants may employ fisher- 

 men of other nationalities to fish on their behalf. Great Britain 

 contends that the article means what in terms it says, and that it 

 confers the right to fish on the inhabitants of the United States only. 

 The United States contend that the liberty to fish is conferred on 

 American fishing-vessels, and that if it once be established by proper 

 evidence that a vessel is an American vessel, then there is no right 

 to question the nationality of fishermen employed on her. 



NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERMEN. 



The question has been recently discussed in regard to the employ- 

 ment of British subjects in the fisheries on those coasts of New- 

 foundland. Americans carry on a large trade in herrings, which are 

 found on those coasts. The fish are caught in nets worked from 

 small boats; they are then put on board American fishing-vessels, 

 packed, and carried direct to the United States. 



So long as the fishermen actually engaged in this trc.de are Ameri- 

 cans, there can be no difficulty, but it has become common to send 

 American vessels to the fishing grounds with crews sufficient only to 

 handle the vessels themselves, and to rely for the catching of fish on 

 Newfoundland fishermen. The operations are controlled by Ameri- 

 cans: they provide the capital; and the fish caught are their prop- 

 erty; but the actual fishing is done by inhabitants of Newfoundland. 

 In this way, under cover of the fishing rights given by the treaty, 

 a business is in many cases carried on in which, so far as the 



52 actual fishing is concerned, American fishermen take little or 



45 



