942 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



Then in 1893 this Act of 1892 having expired, an Act was passed 

 called " The Foreign Fishing- Vessels Act," to be found at p. 730. 



For the present purpose, all I need say about that Act is this : That 

 it authorised the issue of licences to foreign fishing-vessels to enter 

 the ports and coasts of Newfoundland under licences, for the follow- 

 ing purposes : 



" The purchase of bait, ice, seines lines and all other supplies and 

 outfits for the fishery, and for the shipping crews." 



And then section 3 contained a provision to enforce the terms of 

 the first section, giving power to officers to board and examine the 

 vessels, in order that they should not be purchasing bait without 



licence, and to 'keep them under a sort of surveillance. 

 564 Then there appeared a prohibition against engaging any 

 person to form part of the crew of such vessel, or rather a pro- 

 vision for the punishment of the offender, the owner of the vessel, 

 if it were found that he had engaged any men without a licence. 



That Act was passed, as I have said already, in view of the fact 

 that negotiations were still going on between the Government of 

 Newfoundland and the United States, with a view to making a com- 

 mercial treaty, or with a view to commercial relations generally, 

 which culminated or ended in what it called the Bond-Hay treaty 

 ultimately. This Act was passed in order, as it were, to keep things 

 right, to keep things smooth (this Act of 1893), while these negotia- 

 tions were going on. But ultimately, the negotiations fell through, 

 and in 1905 the parties found themselves, as it were, face to face. 

 The negotiations had failed, and the position of the parties then was 

 that each side stood upon its strict rights. 



But I must observe here that these negotiations, and the failure to 

 come to terms, had no relation whatever to the question of treaty 

 rights ; they related entirely to commercial or fiscal questions. That 

 is, the negotiations. 



This clause, however, was put into the Act of 1893, and afterwards 

 repeated in a slightly different form in 1905, in order, in the mean- 

 time, while the negotiations were going on, to facilitate the opera- 

 tions of the American fishing-vessels while they were fishing- vessels. 

 And here comes up a sort of accident which has been the cause of 

 some confusion and misunderstanding of the whole business in other 

 points as well as those we are now discussing. By a sort of accident 

 the same vessels that came down to catch fish at one season of the year 

 came down afterwards to purchase herring. That appears I think 

 clearly, and cannot be disputed. These vessels, when they cleared 

 from the United States, brought with them the necessary papers and 

 documents to enable them to carry on trade in Newfoundland waters, 

 in addition to their rights as fishermen. They brought licences or 



