DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 481 



And again: 



4. Formation of fishing establishments. 



The privilege of establishing permanent fishing stations on the shores of 

 Canadian bays, creeks, and harbours, akin to that of landing to dry and cure 

 fish, is of material advantage to United States citizens. 



******* 



There are further advantages derivable from permanent establishments 

 ashore, such as the accumulation of stock and fresh fish preserved in snow or 

 ice, and others kept in frozen and fresh state by artificial freezing. /&., 94-95. 



In that portion of the same " Case " which specially regards the 

 character of the Newfoundland fishery and points out with elabor- 

 ate precision the rights of United States fishermen on the shores of 

 that island and the compensation demanded therefor, the British 

 Government says: 



I. The entire freedom of the Inshore Fisheries. 



Newfoundland, from that part of its coast now thrown open to United States 

 fishermen, yearly extracts, at the lowest estimate, five million dollars' worth of 

 fish and fish-oil ; and when the value of fish used for bait and local consump- 

 tion for food and agricultural purposes, of which there are no returns, is taken 

 into account, the total may be fairly stated at $6,000,000 annually. 



It may possibly be contended on the part of the United States that their fish- 

 ermen have not in the past availed themselves of the Newfoundland inshore 

 fisheries, with but few exceptions, and that they would and do resort to the 

 coasts of that island only for the purpose of procuring bait for the bank 

 fishery. This may up to the present time, to some extent, be true as regards 

 codfish, but not as regards herring, turbot, and halibut. It is not at all prob- 

 able that, possessing as they now do the right to take herring and capelin for 

 themselves on all parts of the Newfoundland coasts, they will continue to pur- 

 chase as heretofore, and they ivill thus prevent the local fishermen, especially 

 those of Fortune Bay, from engaging in a very lucrative employment which 

 formerly occupied them during a portion of the winter season for the supply of 

 the United States market. 



The words of the Treaty of Washington, in dealing with the question of 

 compensation, makes no allusion to what use the United States may or do make 

 of the privileges granted them, but simply state that, inasmuch as it is asserted 

 by Her Majesty's Government that the privileges accorded to the citizens of 

 the United States under Article 18 are of greater value than those accorded 

 by Articles 19 and 21 to the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, and this is not 

 admitted by the United States, it is further agreed that a Commission shall be 

 appointed, having regard to the privileges accorded by the United States to 

 Her Britannic Majesty's subjects in Articles Nos. 19 and 21, the amount of any 

 compensation to be paid by the Government of the United States to that of 

 Her Majesty in return for the privileges accorded to the United States under 

 Article 18. 



It is asserted, on the part of Her Majesty's Government, that the actual use 

 which may be made of this privilege at the present moment is not so much in 

 question as the actual value of it to those who may, if they will, use it. It is 

 possible, and even probable, that United States fishermen may at any moment 

 avail themselves of the privilege of fishing in Newfoundland inshore waters to 

 a much larger extent than they do at present; but even if they should not do 

 so, it would not relieve them from the obligation of making the just payment 

 for a right which they have acquired subject to the condition of making that 

 payment. The case may be not inaptly illustrated by the somewhat analogous 

 one of a tenancy of shooting or fishing privileges; it is not because the tenant 

 fails to exercise the rights which he has acquired by virtue of his lease that the 

 proprietor should be debarred from the recovery of his rent. 



There is a marked contrast, to the advantage of the United States citizens, 

 between the privilege of access to fisheries the most valuable and productive 

 in the world, and the barren right accorded to the inhabitants of Newfound- 

 land of fishing in the exhausted and preoccupied waters of the United States 

 north of the thirty-ninth parallel of north latitude, in which there is no field 

 for lucrative operations even if British subjects desired to resort to them; and 



92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 4 41 



