80 COUNTEB CASE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



possessions. It is obvious that, in those places, the fisheries were of 

 special and peculiar value, and the treaty of 1818, it is contended, 

 gave effect to this consideration. 



If the statement that these instructions were communicated to the 

 United States is intended to mean that they were communicated 

 prior to the conclusion of the treaty of 1818, the United States ques- 

 tions the accuracy of the assertion, and calls attention to the failure 

 of the British Case to cite any evidence in support of the assertion, 

 or even to state the exact date when the alleged communication was 

 made. 



With reference to the " special stress," which this letter is repre- 

 sented as laying upon the exclusion of American fishermen from 

 bays, harbors, etc., it will be remembered that during the period be- 

 tween the War of 1812 and the treaty of 1818, Great Britain denied 

 the right of American fishermen to enter any of the bays, harbors, 

 creeks, or inlets of the British Colonies within the three mile limit 

 on the ground that the fisheries provisions of the treaty of 1783, 

 under which such right was held, had been abrogated by the War of 

 1812. 6 The United States on the other hand was equally insistent 

 that the right of American fishermen to fish in the waters referred 

 to survived that war, and this position was not relinquished by the 

 United States in making the treaty of 1818, and has never since been 

 relinquished. Lord Bathurst's letter to Governor Keats was merely a 

 statement of one side of a disputed question, and even on the assump- 

 tion that it was communicated to the United States, it is difficult to 

 see what particular influence it could have had upon the negotiations 

 resulting in the treaty of 1818. 



Moreover, as in the case of Lord Bathurst's letter to Mr. Adams, 

 the willingness of the British negotiators to admit American fisher- 

 men to the bays, creeks, and harbors of Labrador and the southern 

 part of Newfoundland covered by the treaty is clearly inconsistent with 

 the inference which is drawn in the British Case from the " special 

 stress " laid upon excluding American fishermen from all bays, creeks, 

 and harbors. This inconsistency is recognized in the British Case; 

 and, although it is silent with regard to the bays, creeks, and harbors 

 on the southern part of Newfoundland, an attempt is made to meet 

 the difficulty with reference to the coast of Labrador by the expla- 

 nation that " it was less important to restrict the rights conferred in 



British Case, p. 125. 6 U. S. Case, p. 14. 



