1004 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



Then follows a short extract from the treaty of 1783, and the Ar- 

 gument continues: 



" The word ' bays ' was therefore undoubtedly intended to be used 

 with the same signification in both treaties. And consideration of the 

 language of both documents shows clearly that the words ' of all 

 other of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions in America ' were em- 

 ployed as words of locality, and not of ownership. The words were 

 used as a geographical limitation ; that they were merely a convenient 

 form of denoting the bays on those parts of the British coasts which 

 were not referred to by name. It would be difficult to suggest any 

 other form of words which would so completely give effect to the con- 

 struction for which his Majesty's Government contends. On the other 

 hand, if it had been intended to limit the waters in the manner sug- 

 gested by the United States, it \vould certainly have been necessary, 

 in view of the great uncertainty of the law on the point, and the 

 large claims which both Great Britain and the United States were 

 maintaining at that time, to come to some express agreement on the 

 extent of territorial jurisdiction over enclosed waters, and to give 

 effect to that agreement in the treaty. 



" The suggestion that the treaty is limited to territorial bays origi- 

 nated not with Great Britain but with the United States. The argu- 

 ment of the United States on former occasions has been that the 

 article refers only to bays over which Great Britain had jurisdiction 

 in 1818." 



If the Tribunal please, counsel for Great Britain have carefully 

 refrained from presenting to this Tribunal in the printed Argument 

 or from discussing in oral argument, the question of the extent of 

 the exclusive territorial jurisdiction of Great Britain over bodies 

 of water adjacent to the shores of its possessions in North America 

 in 1818 ; arid have taken the position that it is immaterial, and some- 

 thing quite apart from the issue here, as to whether or not any body 

 of water from which the fishermen of the United States were to be 

 excluded thereafter, was within or without the exclusive jurisdiction 

 of Great Britain. 



Taking up, Mr. President, the contention of the United States on 

 this question, I read from p. 144 of the printed Argument filed in 

 behalf of the United States : 



"If this renunciatory clause, drafted by the American plenipo- 

 tentiaries, had been made to read on or within three marine miles 

 of any of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbors within the 'British 

 jurisdiction' or within 'the British limits,' or within 'the ex- 

 clusive jurisdiction of Great Britain,' or within ' the maritime limits 

 of Great Britain,' or within 'the limits of the British sover- 

 eignty ' 



all these limiting phrases are quotations from the correspondence 

 and negotiations leading up to the treaty of 1818 



"the meaning definitely attached to any one of these terms in the 

 notes and discussions between the two powers antedating the meeting 



