61 QUESTION THREE. 



CUSTOMS ENTRIES AND LIGHT AND HARBOUR DUES IN TREATY 



WATERS. 



Can the exercise by the inhabitants of the United States of the 

 liberties referred to in the said article be subjected, without the con- 

 sent of the United States, to the requirements of entry or report at 

 custom- houses, or the payment of light, or harbour, or other dues, or 

 to any other similar requirement, or condition, or exaction? 



THE " LIBERTIES." 



The " liberties " referred to in this question are : 



1. Liberty to " take fish " on certain coasts, bays, harbours, and 

 creeks; and 



2. Liberty to " dry and cure fish " in certain unsettled bays, har- 

 bours, and creeks that is, upon the shore. 



3. In addition to these two liberties, the United States asserts that 

 its fishermen are entitled to have, for their fishing vessels, the same 

 commercial privileges as are accorded by agreement or otherwise to 

 United States trading vessels generally. 



THE QUESTION. 



The question then seems to be whether United States fishing vessels 

 are entitled to frequent British coasts, bays, creeks, and even har- 

 bours, to land upon British territory, and (if the United States' con- 

 tention be correct) to exercise all the privileges accorded to trading 

 vessels, and yet be exempt from the supervision which all nations 

 exercise over all vessels (not only foreign but their own) coming into 

 their harbours and discharging upon their territory ; and exempt also 

 from contribution to the up-keep of lights necessary to the navigation 

 of the waters. 



BRITISH CONTENTION. 



The position assumed by His Majesty's Government was stated by 

 Sir Edward Grey in his memorandum of the 2nd February, 1906, as 

 follows (App., p. 496) : 



The United States Government would undoubtedly be entitled to 

 complain if the fishery of inhabitants of the United States were 



seriously interfered with by a vexatious and arbitrary enforce- 

 >2 ment of the colonial customs laws, but it must be remembered 



that, in proceeding to the waters in which the winter fishery is 



92909 8. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 4 5 53 



