QUESTION ONE. 17 



so interpreted by Great Britain, not that the British will not compete 

 with the French, but merely that, if they do compete, they will not in- 

 terrupt the fishery of the French by their competition. 



It will be perceived from the foregoing analyses that the pro- 

 visions in the French treaties relating to the taking of fish, are 

 almost identical with the language used in the fisheries article of the 

 treaty of 1783 between the United States and Great Britain with 

 reference to the fishing liberty of the inhabitants of the United 

 States on the British coasts generally ; and that the provisions of the 

 British declaration of 1783 requiring that the British fishermen shall 

 not interrupt the French fishermen, as they have been interpreted 

 by Great Britain, have practically the identical effect that the use 

 of the expression " in common " in its reciprocal application to Amer- 

 ican and British fishermen has in the treaty of 1818, as interpreted 

 by the United States. 



In other words, under the British interpretation of the French 

 treaties, they provided in effect that the French " shall have the lib- 

 erty of fishing" on the coast specified, but that they shall not be 

 interrupted by the British fishermen in their competition with 

 them ; and this interpretation of the French treaties exactly describes 

 the fishing liberty " in common " with British subjects which the 

 inhabitants of the United States have under the treaty of 1818 as 

 interpreted by the United States. 



Nevertheless, although Great Britain in the controversy with 

 France has always maintained that French fishermen had merely a 

 fishing liberty in common or concurrently with British subjects and 

 has asserted territorial jurisdiction over the waters in which the 

 French liberty of fishing was exercised, just as Great Britain now 

 asserts such jurisdiction over the waters of the treaty coasts defined 

 by the treaty of 1818 with the United States, yet, throughout the 

 entire period during which the French treaty of 1783 and the subse- 

 quent treaties continuing the French rights were in force, neither Great 

 Britain nor Newfoundland has ever undertaken to establish, much 

 less enforce, any fishing regulations against the French fishermen 

 in the waters of the " French Coast " or to limit or restrain in any 

 way the exercise of the liberty of fishing secured to the French under 

 those treaties. 



U. S. Counter-Case Appendix, p. 323. 



