1014 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



under the Eeciprocity treaty of 1854. Mr Seward said in the in- 

 struction, according to the British Argument, that he forwarded a 

 very suggestive letter from Mr. Cutts, stating who he was, and that 

 Mr. Cutts had been long familiar with the subject practically and 

 theoretically, and that his suggestions were entitled to great respect. 

 I will read from the document quoted in the printed Argument of 

 Great Britain, for the purpose of showing the historical position of 

 the United States : 



" In this letter Mr. Cutts said : 



" ' In the opinion of this Government, repeatedly announced at 

 different periods, the American fishermen have a clear right to the 

 use of the fishing grounds lying off the provincial coasts, whether in 

 the main ocean or in the inland seas, provided they do not approach 

 within three marine miles of such coasts, or of the entrance to any 

 bay, creek or harbour not more than six miles in width ; and to such 

 bays only does the renunciatory clause in the first article apply.' " 



When the counsel for Great Britain found that statement, it was 

 the historical position of the United States ; but now, because an effort 

 is made to draw a distinction between the Argument and the Case 

 of the United States, the printed Argument of Great Britain is 

 abandoned, and this position, as stated by Mr. Cutts, is not the his- 

 torical position of the United States. 



The printed Argument of Great Britain recalls another illustra- 

 tion of the historical position of the United States, and cites the posi- 

 tion taken before the Halifax Commission in the proceedings under 

 the Treaty of Washington in Halifax in 1877. The British Argu- 

 ment quotes from the Answer of the United States, filed before that 

 Commission, as follows: 



" For the purposes of fishing, the territorial waters of every country 

 along the sea-coast extend three miles from low water-mark ; and be- 

 yond is the open ocean, free to all. In the case of bays and gulfs; 

 such only are territorial waters as do not exceed six miles in width 

 at the mouth, upon a straight line measured from headland to head- 

 land. All larger bodies of water, connected with the open sea, form 

 a part of it. And wherever the mouth of a bay, gulf, or inlet exceeds 



the maximum width of six miles at its mouth, and so loses the 

 610 character of territorial or inland waters, the jurisdictional or 



proprietary line for the purpose of excluding foreigners from 

 fishing is measured along the shore of the bay, according to its sinu- 

 osities, and the limit of exclusion is three miles from low-water 

 mark." 



The British Argument also cites the position of the Committee on 

 Foreign Eelations of the United States Senate in 1887, and states 

 that they " reaffirmed the same view," citing a passage from the re- 

 port of the committee to substantiate the fact that the historical view 

 of the United States was that expressed by Mr. Cutts. The extract 



