1018 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



612 That position must have been taken by the British Govern- 

 ment because they thought it was the contention of the United 

 States that the renunciatory clause applied only to bays within the 

 3-maririe-mile line, and, therefore, not more than 6 miles across. 



In one of the extracts which I have read from the British Argu- 

 ment, on p. 92, this statement is made : 



"Great Britain contends that these words are merely descriptive 

 of the locality of the bays, and that they have no other significance. 

 In the Counter-Case of the United States the attitude of Great 

 Britain on this point has been misunderstood. It is there stated 

 that ' the British Case is based on the assumption that the words 

 "bays, creeks, or harbours of his Britannic Majesty's dominions in 

 America" as used in the renunciatory clause of the treaty, were 

 intended to be descriptive of territorial waters of Great Britain,' and 

 an argument is thereupon formulated on that issue. This is a mis- 

 apprehension. The contention of His Majesty's Government is stated 

 quite clearly in the British Case, and has been stated in the same 

 way on many occasions during the last seventy years. It is that the 

 treaty relates to all bays on the British coasts." 



And on p. 93 of the British Argument this position is also taken. 



Now, I wish to state to the Tribunal the logical result of the 

 position of Great Britain, The logical result of this contention on 

 the part of Great Britain is that the United States is, by virtue of 

 this renunciatory clause, not only excluded from fishing within the 

 exclusive territorial waters of Great Britain constituting part of the 

 British dominions bordering the North Atlantic, but that by virtue 

 of this renunciatory clause, the United States, except on the coasts 

 specifically designated in the treaty, also renounced the right of 

 fishing on the high seas. 



There is no other conclusion to be drawn from the position of 

 Great Britain but that when the Commissioners, on behalf of the 

 United States, themselves drafted and presented to the British Com- 

 missioners, in 1818, this renunciatory clause, they voluntarily sur- 

 rendered the right to fish on the high seas; the surrender of which 

 right had never been even suggested by Great Britain in any state- 

 ment of what was to be surrendered. 



The position of the United States, as stated in the extracts that I 

 have read from the Argument of the United States, is that, by 

 virtue of this renunciatory clause, the United States renounced the 

 right, except on the specifically designated coasts, to fish within the 

 exclusive maritime limits, or within the exclusive maritime jurisdic- 

 tion of Great Britain; and that this jurisdiction had been stated, in 

 the preliminary negotiations for the treaty, to extend 3 marine miles 

 from the shores of the British possessions in North America; but 

 that when the negotiators drafted the treaty, the provision was 

 inserted that the fishing-vessels of the United States should refrain 

 from fishing not only within 3 marine miles of the coasts, but within 



