1042 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



Great Britain, in September, 1815, claiming in an interview that a 

 certain part of article 3 of the treaty of 1783 had been abrogated by 

 the war of 1812, stated to Mr. Adams, as appears on p. 265 of the 

 Appendix to the Case of the United States, that: 



" Great Britain could not permit the vessels of the United States 

 to fish within the creeks and close upon the shores of the British 

 territories, so, on the other hand, it was by no means her intention 

 to interrupt them in fishing anywhere in the open sea, or without the 

 territorial jurisdiction, a marine league from the shore; " 



Mr. Adams, after this interview, and in pursuance of a notification 

 to Lord Bathurst during the interview that he would address a 

 G27 formal note on the subject, wrote Lord Bathurst. This noti- 

 fication of course could be made but for one purpose, that was 

 to have specifically defined in writing the statement made by Lord 

 Bathurst. 



This note appears in the United States Case Appendix, on p. 269. 

 I will read but a part of it 



" Your lordship did also express it as the intention of the British 

 Government to exclude the fishing vessels of the United States, here- 

 after, from the liberty of fishing within one marine league of the 

 shores of all the British territories in North America, and from that 

 of drying and curing their fish on the unsettled parts of those terri- 

 tories," 



Lord Bathurst, under date October, 1816, in a note on p. 278 of 

 the Appendix to the Case of the United States, sets out the difficulty 

 in these words : 



" It was not of fair competition that His Majesty's Government 

 had reason to complain, but of the preoccupation of British harbours 

 and creeks, in North America, bv the fishing vessels of the United 



States," 



Mr. Bagot shortly afterwards came to the United States as the 

 first Minister from Great Britain following the war of 1812. On p. 

 290 of the Appendix to the Case of the United States, in a note to 

 Mr. Monroe, then Secretary of State for the United States, and sub- 

 sequently President of the United States, he advised Mr. Monroe 

 as follows: 



" It is not necessary for me to advert to the discussion which has 

 taken place between Earl Bathurst and Mr. Adams." 



Mr. Bagot had before him, the Tribunal will observe, the notes of 

 the discussion between Mr. Adams and Lord Bathurst, which more 

 plainly appears further along in the same note : 



" In the correspondence which has passed between them, you will 

 have already seen, in the notes of the former, a full exposition of the 

 grounds upon which the liberty of drying and fishing within the 



