QUESTION THREE. 



Can tlie exercise by the inhabitants of the United States of the lib- 

 erties referred to in the said Article be subjected, without the consent 

 of the United States, to the requirements of entry or report at cus- 

 tom-houses or the payment of light or harbor or other dues, or to any 

 other similar requirement or condition or exaction? 



It will be perceived from an examination of Article I of the treaty 

 of 1818 that the only liberties referred to in it are the liberty of tak- 

 ing fish and the liberty of drying and curing fish, and that these two 

 liberties may be exercised by the inhabitants of the United States 

 only on the treaty coasts, in distinction from the coasts covered by the 

 renunciatory clause of that article. 



It follows, therefore, that this Question relates only to the treat- 

 ment of the inhabitants of the United States, in respect of the mat- 

 ters specified, when exercising these two liberties on the treaty coasts. 



Irrelevant questions discussed in British Case. 



The British Case, nevertheless, attempts to extend this Question to 

 the treatment of American fishing vessels, in respect of the matters 

 specified, when exercising commercial privileges. The liberties re- 

 ferred to in this Question are stated in the British Case to be the two 

 liberties above mentioned, and 



3. In addition to these two liberties, the United States asserts that 

 its fishermen are entitled to have, for their fishing vessels, the same 

 commercial privileges as are accorded by agreement or otherwise to 

 United States trading vessels generally.* 



In order to bring this new element into the Question, the British 

 Case then proceeds to restate the Question for that purpose as 

 follows : 



The question then seems to be whether United States fishing vessels 

 are entitled * * * (if the United States' contention be correct) to 

 exercise all the privileges accorded to trading vessels and yet be 

 exempt from the supervision which all nations exercise over all ves- 

 sels, (not only foreign but their own) coming into their harbors 



British Case, p. 61. 



55 



