834 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



always been, to join with the Government of Great Britain in 

 agreeing upon all reasonable and suitable regulations for the due 

 control of the fishermen of both countries in the exercise of their 

 rights, but this Government cannot permit the exercise of 

 501 these rights to be subject to the will of the Colony of New- 

 foundland. The Government of the United States cannot 

 recognize the authority of Great Britain or of its Colony to deter- 

 mine whether American citizens shall fish on Sunday. The Govern- 

 ment of Newfoundland cannot be permitted to make entry and 

 clearance at a Newfoundland custom-house and the payment of a 

 tax for the support of Newfoundland lighthouses conditions to the 

 exercise of the American right of fishing. If it be shown that these 

 things are reasonable the Government of the United States will agree 

 to them, but it cannot submit to have them imposed upon it without 

 its consent. This position is not a matter of theory. It is of vital 

 and present importance, for the plain object of recent legislation of 

 the Colony of Newfoundland has been practically to destroy the 

 value of American rights under the Treaty of 1818. Those rights 

 are exercised in competition with the fishermen and merchants of 

 Newfoundland. The situation of the Newfoundland fishermen re- 

 siding upon the shore and making the shore their base of opera- 

 tions, and of the American fishermen coming long distances with 

 expensive outfits, devoting long periods to the voyage to the fishing 

 grounds and back to the market, obliged to fish rapidly in order to 

 make up for that loss of time, and making ships their base of opera- 

 tions, are so different that it is easy to frame regulations which will 

 offer slight inconvenience to the dwellers on shore and be practically 

 prohibitory to the fishermen from the coasts of Maine and Massa- 

 chusetts; and, if the grant of this competitive right is to be subject 

 to such laws as our competitors chose to make, it is a worthless right. 

 The Premier of Newfoundland in his speech in the Newfoundland 

 Parliament,, delivered on the 12th April, 1905, in support of the For- 

 eign Fishing Bill, made the following declaration : 



This bill is framed specially to prevent the American fishermen from coming 

 into the bays, harbours, and creeks of the coast of Newfoundland for the pur- 

 pose of obtaining herring, caplin, and squid for fishing purposes. 



And this further declaration: 



This communication is important evidence as to the value of the position we 

 occupy as mistress of the northern seas so far as the fisheries are concerned. 

 Herein was evidence that it is within the power of the Legislature of tliis 

 Colony to make or mar our competitors to the North Atlantic fisheries. Here 

 was evidence that by refusing or restricting the necessary bait supply, we can 

 bring our foreign competitors to realize their dependency upon us. One of the 

 objects of this legislation is to bring the fishing interests of Gloucester and 

 New England to a realization of their dependence upon the bait supplies of this 

 Colony. No measure could have been devised having more clearly for its object 

 the conserving, safeguarding, and protecting of the interests of those concerned 

 in the fisheries of the Colony. 



It will be osberved that there is here the very frankest possible dis- 

 avowal of any intention to so regulate the fisheries as to be fair to the 

 American fishermen. The purpose is, under cover of the exercise of 

 the power of regulation, to exclude the American fishermen. The 

 Government of the United States surely cannot be expected to see 

 with complacency the rights of its citizens subjected to this kind of 

 regulation. 



