DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 601 



1882, and subsequently ratified in relation to fishing in the North Sea, 

 between* Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, and 

 the Netherlands. 



The present memorandum also contains provisions for the usual 

 commercial facilities allowed everywhere for the promotion of legiti- 

 mate trade, and nowhere more fully than in British ports and under 

 the commercial policies of that nation. Such facilities cannot with 

 any show of reason be denied to American fishing vessels when plying 

 their vocations in deep-sea fishing grounds in the localities open to 

 them equally with other nationalities. The Convention of 1818 in- 

 hibits the " taking, drying or curing fish " by American fishermen in 

 certain waters and on certain coasts, and when these objects are 

 effected, the inhibitory features are exhausted. Everything that may 

 presumably guard against an infraction of these provisions will be 

 recognised and obeyed by the Government of the United States, but 

 should not be pressed beyond its natural force. 



By its very terms and necessary intendment, the same treaty recog- 

 nises the continuance permanently of the accustomed rights of Ameri- 

 can fishermen, in those places not embraced in the renunciation of 

 the treaty, to prosecute the business as freely as did their forefathers. 



No construction of the Convention of 1818 that strikes at or im- 

 pedes the open-sea fishing by citizens of the United States, can be 

 accepted, nor should a treaty of friendship be tortured into a means 

 of such offence, nor should such an end be accomplished by indirec- 

 tion. Therefore, by causing the same port regulations and commer- 

 cial rights to be applied to vessels engaged therein as are enforced 

 relative to other trading craft, we propose to prevent a ban from 

 being put upon the lawful and regular business of open-sea fishing. 



Arrangements now r exist between the Governments of Great Britain 

 and France, and Great Britain and Germany, for the submission in 

 the first instance of all cases of seizure to the joint examination and 

 decision of two discreet and able commanding officers of the Navy 

 of the respective countries, whose vessels are to be sent on duty to 

 cruise in the waters to be guarded against encroachment. Copies of 

 these agreements are herewith enclosed for reference. The addi- 

 tional feature of an Umpire in case of a difference of opinion, is 

 borrowed from the terms of Article 1, of the Treaty of June 5, 1854, 

 between the United States and Great Britain. 



This same Treaty of 1854 contains in its first article provision for 

 a joint Commission for marking the fishing limits, and is therefore 

 a precedent for the present proposition. 



The season of 1886 for inshore fishing on the Canadian coasts has 



come to an end, and assuredly no lack of viligance or promptitude 



in making seizures can be ascribed to the vessels of the Marine Police 



of the Dominion. The record of their operations discloses but a 



single American vessel found violating the inhibitions of the 



359 Convention of 181&, by fishing within three marine miles of 



the coast. The numerous seizures made have been of vessels 



quietly at anchor in the established ports of entry, under charges 



which, up to this day, have not been particularized sufficiently to 



allow of an intelligent defence. Not one has been condemned after 



"This Memorandum is printed under dute of July 12, 18S7, at p. 416 of 

 Appendix. 



