QUESTION SIX. 113 



States Government) special stress was laid upon the exclusion of its 

 fishermen from bays, harbours, rivers, creeks, and inlets of all His 

 Majesty's possessions. It is obvious that, in those places, the fisheries 

 were of special and peculiar value, and the treaty of 1818, it is con- 

 tended, gave effect to this consideration. (App., p. 63.) 



It is true that liberty was granted to take fish in the " bays, har- 

 bours, and creeks," as well as on the "coasts" of Labrador, but this 

 concession emphasises the limitation of the libertj^ granted in respect 

 of the rest of the treat}^ coast, and may have been due both to the 

 necessity of making some concession (if an agreement was to be 

 reached), and to the fact that it was less important to restrict the 

 rights conferred in connection with Labrador than to limit the liberty 

 granted in respect of the territorial waters of the more populous 

 island of Newfoundland. 



FRENCH CLAIMS. 



Moreover, the existence of the French claim to a large portion of 

 the coast, with regard to which these liberties were conceded, may 

 have supplied an additional reason for not extending the grant to 

 bays, harbours, and creeks, in which, for the reasons above indicated, 

 there would be a greater probability of collision with the French 

 fishermen. 



OTHER TREATIES. 



The treaties under discussion are by no means singular in their 

 use of the word " coasts." In the treaty of 1854 (known as the 

 Reciprocity Treaty) between Great Britain and the United States, 

 for example, the word means, as in the 1818 treaty, something 

 different from the indentations of the shore. By that treaty liberty 

 was given to United States fishermen to take fish (App., p. 36.) 



on the sea -coasts and shores, and in the bays, harbours, and creeks of 

 Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and 

 of the several islands thereunto adjacent. 



And liberty was given to British subjects to take fish 



on the eastern sea-coasts and shores of the United States north of the 

 36th parallel of north latitude, and on the shores of the several 

 islands thereunto adjacent, and in the bays, harbours, and creeks of 

 the said sea-coasts and shores of the United States and of the said 



islands. 

 126 By the treaty of 1871 (articles 18 and 19) provision was 



made for reciprocal rights of fishing in similar terms. (App., 

 p. 39). 



THE SHORES OF T1IK MAODALEN ISLANDS. 



The word " shores " in article one of the treaty is used to express 

 the same idea as " coasts " in other parts of the article. Messrs. Gal- 



