ARGUMENT OF SIR JAMES WINTER. 943 



clearances, or documents, I do not remember exactly what they are 

 called. There are two kinds, one called by one name and another 

 by another name. The point to which I wish to call attention is, 

 that they were the same vessels which would be engaged in the cod 

 fishery in the summer months, that afterwards came in the winter 

 to the Bay of Islands to purchase herring. Therefore, a confused 

 idea got among those who do not understand the case, without looking 

 closely into it, that American fishing-vessels, when they were in thw 

 Bay of Islands purchasing herring, were there under their treaty 

 rights. They were not. They were there simply on the same footing 

 as any commercial vessels from any other part of the world ; and the 

 fact that they were American fishing- vessels at another season of the 

 year is to be borne in mind, because it is endeavoured to be made to 

 appear that these differences, or that these questions which after- 

 wards arose with regard to the purchase of herring, had some connec- 

 tion and an important bearing on the right of the American fisher- 

 men under the treaty and on the treatment they were receiving at the 

 hands of the Newfoundland Government. 



Whether the treatment they received when they came down to pur- 

 chase herring from Newfoundland fishermen was hostile or not, 

 friendly or unfriendly, the point I wish to bring out is, that it had 

 nothing whatever to do with their treaty rights under the treaty of 

 1818. 



Then the Act of 1905 was passed. The issue then between the 

 parties, or the trouble or difficulty that led to the enactment of this 

 measure, related entirely to what may be called commercial matters 

 or commercial transactions, and previously to 1905, with regard to 

 the matter of the engaging of crews. This is a point which I think 

 is of importance. With regard to the provision in the Act of 1893 

 concerning the engagement of crews, 'that clearly had reference only 

 to the engagement of two or three men, in case there might be a short- 

 age in the crew on account of an accident, a man leaving or becoming 

 ill, or some more men being required. In order to meet such a case 

 as that, that clause was put in the Act of 1893 to facilitate matters. 

 Further, as has just been suggested to me, it was to meet the case of a 

 bond fide fishing- vessel coming down into Newfoundland waters, be- 

 ing short of a man, or requiring a man or two this provision was 

 put in to enable the master to get a man in Newfoundland to make 

 up his crew. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK : Which provision do you refer to now ? 



SIR JAMES WINTER : The license to engage crews in Newfoundland. 

 Number one of the Act of 1893. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK: Page 730? 



SIR JAMES WINTER : And for the shipping of crews. It is p. 730. 

 565 That was meant to refer to a bond -fide shortage in crew, 



92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 10 4 



