QUESTION SIX. 83 



Although these two treaties were signed on the same day, Septem- 

 ber 3, 1783, the negotiations for the treaty with the United States 

 were completed on the 30th of November, 1782. when provisional 

 articles for a treaty were concluded between the United States and 

 Great Britain. The articles of the definitive treaty as finally signed 

 are identical with these provisional articles, which, as recited in the 

 preamble of that treaty, were " to be inserted in and to constitute the 

 treaty of peace proposed to be concluded between the Crown of Great 

 Britain and the said United States, but which treaty was not to be 

 concluded until terms of peace should be agreed upon between Great 

 Britain and France, and His Britannic Majesty should be ready to 

 conclude such treaty accordingly."* 



The definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain and France 

 was also preceded by provisional articles concluded on January 20, 

 1783, which articles, as in the case of the American treaty, were 

 identical with the provisions of the final treaty in so far as they 

 related to the North Atlantic coast fisheries; but the Declarations 

 accompanying the final treaty were not agreed upon in their final 

 form until after the provisional articles were signed. 



The course of these negotiations between Great Britain and France, 

 so far as the question of exclusive French rights under the fisheries 

 provisions of that treaty is concerned, is set forth in the following 

 extract from a memorandum enclosed by Lord Salisbury in his note 

 of July 9, 1889, to M. Waddington, the French Ambassador at 

 London : 



The first formal proposal came from M. de Vergennes in a note 

 dated the 6th October, 1782, and runs as follows: 



" La concurrence entre les pecheurs Frangais et Anglais aiant ete 

 une source intarissable de discussions et de querelles, le Roi pense 

 que le moyen le plus sur de les prevenir est de separer les pecheries 

 respectives: en consequence Sa Majeste consent a se desister du droit 

 de peche qui lui est acquis en vertu de 1'Article XIII du Traite 

 d'Utrecht, depuis le Cap de Bona Vista jusqu'au Cap Saint- Jean, 

 a condition que ses sujets pecheront seuls a 1'exclusion des Anglais, 

 depuis le Cap Saint-Jean en passant par le nord et le Cap Kay, &c." * 



U. S. Case Appendix, p. 23. 



6 Translation. The competition between the French and English fishermen 

 having been an inexhaustible source of disputes and quarrels, the King thinks 

 the best means to prevent them is to separate the respective fishing grounds ; in 

 consequence His Majesty consents to relinquishing the right of fishery acquired 

 by him under Article XIII of the Treaty of Utrecht, from the Cape of Bona 

 Vista to Cape St. John, on condition that his subjects shall fish alone to the 

 exclusion of the English, from Cape St. John, via the North and Cape Ray, &c. 



