1172 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



the question of deciding and the decision followed within a very short 

 time thereafter, not to enforce or attempt to enforce the Nova Scotia 

 theory of interpretation, for the Tribunal is now furnished with the 

 evidence which, for the first time, has been made public, that, in spite 

 of the remarkable opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown, Lord 

 Stanley was instructed by the formal action of the British Ministry, 

 as appears in the Appendix to the Case of Great Britain, at pp. 145 

 and 146, to advise the authorities of Nova Scotia reading from the 

 top of p. 146, from a despatch from Lord Stanley to Lord Falk- 

 land under date the 19th May, 1845, as follows : 



" H. M. Govt therefore henceforward propose to regard as bays, 

 in the sense of the treaty, only those inlets of the sea which measure 

 from headland to headland at their entrance the double of the dis- 

 tance of 3 miles, within which it will still be prohibited to the fishing 

 vessels of the United States to approach the coast for the purpose of 

 fishing. I transmit to your Lordship herewith the copy of a letter, 



together with its enclosures, which I have received from the 

 707 Foreign Office upon the subject, from which you will learn 



the general views entertained by H. M. Govt as to the expedi- 

 ency of extending to the whole of the coasts of the British posses- 

 sions in N. America, the same liberality with respect to U. States 

 fishing boats as H. M. Govt have recently thought fit to apply to the 

 Bay of Fundy." 



JUDGE GRAY: What was the date of that letter? 



Mr. WARREN: The 19th May, 1845, your Honour; and it is found 

 in the British Appendix, at p. 145. 



On p. 53 of the Counter-Case of Great Britain, filed before this 

 Tribunal, this rather surprising statement is made : 



"Afterwards (19th May, 1845) the new Colonial Secretary (Lord 

 Stanley), not apparently appreciating the value of the bays as fish- 

 ing grounds, suggested to the Governors of Nova Scotia and New 

 Brunswick a further relaxation of," &c. 



and the Counter-Case proceeds to quote from the letter which I have 

 just read. 



As a matter of fact, it appears from the letter which I have just 

 read that Lord Stanley, the new Colonial Secretary, did not decide 

 this question ; but that Lord Stanley transmitted to Governor Falk- 

 land a letter from the Foreign Office of Great Britain, registering the 

 formal decision of the Government of Great Britain in respect of 

 this matter. Those enclosures do not accompany the letter printed in 

 the British Case Appendix. 



In passing, I desire to state that Mr. Everett, in behalf of the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States, declined to accept as a concession the 

 right to fish in the Bay of Fundy; and in a note addressed to Lord 

 Aberdeen, dated the 25th March, 1845, to be found in the Appendix 

 to the Case of the United States, at p. 497, he communicated to Lord 



