1024 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



After the writing of this instruction both the British and Canadian 

 Governments, without any reservation whatever, issued instructions 

 which, however, were never put into force, excluding the fishing- 

 vessels of the United States, only from those waters lying within a 

 line drawn from shore to shore at the part where the body of water 

 first contracts to the width of 10 miles; in accordance with, as was 

 stated by Mr. Cardwell himself, the convention between Great Britain 

 and France in 1839. 



The reasons these instructions were not put in force were, first, be- 

 cause of the system of granting licences which prevailed from the 

 termination of the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 in 1866 until 1870; 

 and, second, because, when the system of granting licences by the 

 colonial governments was terminated in 1870, the Government of 

 Great Britain requested and insisted that there should be put 

 616 in force other and quite different orders, which were not in 

 conflict with the position of the United States, and which in 

 fact directed the fishing vessels of the United States to be excluded 

 from bays not over 6 miles in width. 



I am aware, if the Tribunal please, that as to these last orders 

 notice was given to the Government of the United States, that the 

 fact of putting the orders into effect these later orders must not 

 be regarded as an " arrangement." 



In 1870, turning now to another illustration of the position of the 

 Government of Great Britain, the Earl of Kimberley transmitted to 

 Sir John Young, then Governor-General of Canada, and to Sir Ed- 

 ward Thornton, who, during that year had become Sir Edward 

 Thornton, Minister for Great Britain in the United States, a memo- 

 randum to be found on p. 629 of the Appendix to the United States 

 Case. The memorandum was transmitted in a note which begins at 

 the bottom of p. 628 and ends near the top of p. 629. 



The memorandum, so far as material here, reads as follows : 



"A convention made between Great Britain and the United States, 

 on the 20th October, 1818, after securing to American fishermen cer- 

 tain rights to be exercised on part of the coasts of Newfoundland and 

 Labrador, proceeded as follows: 



" 'And the United States hereby renounce, for ever any liberty 

 heretofore enjoyed or claimed by the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry, 

 or cure fish on or within three miles of any of the coasts, bays, creeks, 

 or harbours of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, not 

 included within the above limits.' 



" The right of Great Britain to exclude American fishermen from 

 waters within three miles of the coast is unambiguous, and it is be- 

 lieved, uncontested. But there appears to be some doubt what are 

 the waters described as within three miles of bays, creeks, and har- 

 bours. When a bay is less than six miles broad, its waters are within 

 the three miles limit, and therefore clearly within the meaning of the 



