1130 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES AEBITRATION. 



then transmitted to the Senate, so definite that the use of the words 

 " bays, creeks or harbors " in the renunciatory clause must have been 

 understood between the two Powers as confined to those waters which 

 are landward of the 3-mile line following the sinuosities of all the 

 coasts, including all the coasts of the great bodies of water now 

 claimed by Great Britain because they had been vaguely designated 

 on some map as bays. 



I have alluded, in passing, to the fact that the United States re- 

 quested no similar recognition of jurisdiction. 



If the British contention, as now put forward, should be followed 

 in the Award of this Tribunal, and if exclusive jurisdiction should 

 be granted to Great Britain as against the fishermen of the United 

 States, no similar right would exist as to the waters along the coast 

 of the United States. 



It will be recalled, in this connection, that James Monroe, who 

 was President of the United States in 1818, when this treaty was 

 signed, was one of the negotiators of the unratified treaty of 180G, 

 and that the United States had then sought, without success, to ex- 

 tend its jurisdiction in respect to a subject-matter the operations 

 of ships of war which would be more readily granted, I submit, 

 than would be a request concerning the exclusive right to these fish- 

 eries. It will also be recalled that a provision was sought by the 

 negotiators for the United States in 1806 to close, against the war 

 vessels of Great Britain, which were then engaged in impressing 

 seamen upon the high seas, because of the war in Europe, what were 

 called harbours and chambers within headlands, and that this pro- 

 posal was resisted by the Government of Great Britain at the instance 

 of the law officers of the Crown, at the request of the Admiralty of 

 Great Britain, which appears from what I have already submitted 

 to this Tribunal. 



I wish, if the Tribunal please, to refer briefly to this report of the 

 American Commissioners, dated the 20th October, 1818, found on 

 p. 306 of the Appendix to the Case of the United States. It is as 

 follows : 



681 " 1. FISHERIES. 



" We succeeded in securing, besides the rights of taking and curing 

 fish within the limits designated by our instructions, as a sine qua non. 

 the liberty of fishing on the coasts of the Magdalen Islands, and of 

 the western coast of Newfoundland, and the privilege of entering 

 for shelter, wood, and water, in all the British harbors of North 

 America. Both were suggested as important to our fishermen, in the 

 communications on that subject which were transmitted to us with 

 our instructions. To the exception of the exclusive rights of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company we did not object, as it was virtually implied 

 in the treaty of 1783, and we had never, any more than the British 



