QUESTION SEVEN. 125 



2. The engagement within British waters of persons to form part 

 of the crew. 



138 Although these Newfoundland statutes were declared not to 

 " affect the rights and privileges granted by treaty to the sub- 

 jects of any State in amity with Her Majesty," all American fishing 

 vessels have conformed to their provisions, paid the licence fees, and 

 taken out licences. No diplomatic complaint of these statutes was 

 made until after 1905. 



1902. A convention, known as the Bond-Hay convention, was 

 negotiated. It gave to the United States fishermen the right of pur- 

 chasing bait, &c., in Newfoundland waters, on paying light, harbour, 

 and customs dues, in return for other concessions. This convention 

 has never been ratified by the United States. (App., p. 46.) 



1905. The licence system embodied in the Newfoundland statutes 

 above referred to came to an end in this year when an Act, 5 Ed. VII, 

 c. 4, was passed by the Legislature of that Colony prohibiting alto- 

 gether the sale of bait, ice, lines, seines, or other outfits or supplies to 

 foreign fishing- vessels, and the engagement by them of crews within 

 Newfoundland waters. (App., p. 757.) 



1906. In 1906, the Act of 1905 was repealed and re-enacted with 

 some amendments by the Foreign Fishing Vessels Act, 1906, but this 

 latter statute has not been put into operation. Matters have gone on 

 under a modus vivendi from year to year. Meantime correspondence 

 has taken place which has led to the present reference to The Hague 

 Tribunal. (App., p. 758.) 



DISCUSSIONS, 1886-1888. 



Reference has already been made to the correspondence which com- 

 menced between the two Governments in 1886 in regard to the posi- 

 tion of American fishing vessels in Canadian ports. In that year the 

 modus vivendi arranged on the termination of the treaty of Washing- 

 ton had itself come to an end, and the parties reverted to their rights 

 under the treaty of 1818. 



Canada proceeded to enforce her fishery laws, and American ves- 

 sels were seized and proceeded against for infringement of those laws. 

 The material portions of the correspondence which ensued are set out 

 in the appendix, but it will be convenient to call attention to the more 

 important documents. To a great extent they deal with the facts of 

 particular cases which it is not necessary to examine before this Tri- 

 bunal, but the general question is fully discussed in them. 



139 On the 10th May. 1886, Mr. Bayard, writing to Sir L. S. S. 

 West, the British Minister at Washington, contended that 



vessels engaged in deep sea fishing ought not to be prevented from 

 buying bait in Canadian ports, and claimed for them the same cus- 



