1104 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



If the Tribunal please, that note was a direct acknowledgment of 

 Mr. Adams' note containing the statement, in precise language, of 

 what Lord Bathurst had stated to him in the previous interview; and 

 I submit that Lord Bathurst adopts and accepts the definition of the 

 extent of the British sovereignty as expressed by Mr. Adams in his 

 letter of the 25th September, 1815, which is found on p. 268 of the 

 Appendix to the Case of the United States. 



Lord Bathurst also stated in this note, on p. 278 of this Ap- 

 pendix : 



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

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



and creeks, in North America, by the fishing vessels of the 

 665 United States, and the forcible exclusion of British vessels 



from places where the fishery might be most advantageously 

 conducted. They had, likewise, reason to complain of the clandestine 

 introduction of prohibited goods into the British colonies by Ameri- 

 can vessels," etc. 



The notes exchanged between Lord Bathurst and Mr. Adams were 

 subsequently placed in the hands of the negotiators in 1818. I have 

 stated that they were given to the Commissioners and were referred 

 to as the measure of the respective admissions and contentions of the 

 two Powers. 



I now respectfully refer the Tribunal to the evidence supporting 

 the statement. First on p. 304 of the Appendix to the Case of the 

 United States will be found the instructions from Mr. Adams, who 

 had returned from England to become Secretary of State of the 

 United States, to Messrs. Gallatin and Rush, the negotiators of the 

 treaty of 1818 in behalf of the United States. 



In these instructions Mr. Adams stated, under sub-division 5 relat- 

 ing to the fisheries: 



" The proceedings, deliberations and communications upon this 

 subject, which took place at the negotiation of Ghent, will be fresh 

 in the remembrance of Mr. Gallatin." 



It will be recalled that Mr. Gallatin was one of the Commissioners 

 at Ghent. 



" Mr. Rush possesses " 



It will also be remembered that Mr. Rush had been acting Secre- 

 tary of State of the United States and had conducted certain of the 

 correspondence regarding this controversy prior to his being ap- 

 pointed Minister for the United States in Great Britain. So Mr. 

 Adams states : 



" Mr. Rush possesses copies of the correspondence with the British 

 Government relating to it after the conclusion of the peace, and of 

 that which has passed here between Mr. Bagot and this Government." 



