38 COUNTER-CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



His Majesty's Government desire to enter a protest against the 

 suggestion that any inference adverse to Great Britain can be drawn 

 from the fact that she has not invariably enforced to the fullest extent, 

 the construction for which she now contends. The fact is that Great 

 Britain has always exhibited the greatest leniency towards United 

 States fishermen. The controversy on the point of bays arose be- 

 tween the years 1837 and 1841, and Great Britain has ever since con- 

 sistently adhered to the view of the construction of the treaty which 

 was then assumed and is now put forward. At times when negotia- 

 tions have been in progress, and the history of the case shows they 

 have not been infrequent, or at times when the relations between the 

 two countries have unhappily been strained and other and wider 

 issues have been at stake, Great Britain has been willing to make some 

 temporary concession in order to avoid the possibilty of friction. 

 But she has invariably coupled with these concessions a declaration 

 of her full claim. If it were to be laid down by the Tribunal that 

 concessions made in this way, and for these reasons, could be used as 

 arguments against the nation which made them, the arrangement of 

 many international differences would become impossible. No nation 

 would then be able to forego even temporarily the enforcement of her 

 strict rights without exposing herself to the risk of losing those rights 

 for ever. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE TREATY. 



It has been pointed out in the British Case that the only meaning 

 which can give effect to all the clauses of Article I of the treaty is that 

 for which His Majesty's Government contend. 



The construction now proposed in the Case of the United States is 

 open to the insuperable objection that it gives no meaning whatever 

 to the words "bays, creeks, or harbours" in the clause. By the 

 treaty, the United States renounced 



any liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by the inhabitant* thereof 

 to take, dry, or cure fish on or within three marine miles of any of the 

 coasts, bays, creeks, or harbors of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions 

 in America, not included within the above mentioned limits. 



45 It will be observed that the interpretation of the United 



States would necessitate the omission from this language of 

 the words " bays, creeks or harbors ; " and would require the three 

 miles to be measured not from the bays, the creeks, and the harbours, 

 but from the coast-line of those indentations. 



Clearly if the language of the treaty were expanded so as to make 

 the distance prescribed directly applicable to each of the places men- 

 tioned, it would read thus 



" three marine miles of any of the coasts ; three marine miles of any 

 of the bays ; three marine miles of any of the creeks ; or three marine 

 miles of any of the harbors." 



