1204 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



The assertion was not only acquiesced in by Great Britain but 

 was made at the request of that Government, and the surrender of 

 the captured vessel by France in response to the request of the Ex- 

 ecutive of the United States was the most positive acquiescence in 

 assertion of jurisdiction which one nation could make to another. 



The action of the United States in asserting the right to jurisdic- 

 tion over these waters was made in accordance with the principle of 

 international law which allows jurisdiction to be acquired by asser- 

 tion and acquiescence, and was supported by evidence especially per- 

 suasive of the reasonableness of the claim and the necessity of exer- 

 cising such jurisdiction in order to enable the United States to main- 

 tain neutrality. 



As stated in the Printed Argument of the United States, "This 

 declaration has remained uncontested by any nation, and has never 

 been made the basis of broad claims of jurisdiction over other bays 

 adjacent to the shores of the United States." 



No conclusions applicable to any other bodies of water indenting 

 the coasts of the United States or any other country can be properly 

 drawn from this act. 



The Printed Argument of the United States, at p. 224, states re- 

 garding the case of the " Alleganean," decided in 1885 : 



" In 1862 during the Civil War in the United States, an organized 

 force of the States in rebellion, proceeded overland, embarked on the 

 waters of the Chesapeake Bay, a body of water leading by a navi- 

 gable river to Washington, the national capital, and into a populous 

 interior district, as in the case of the Delaware Bay and River, and 

 captured and destroyed the Alleganean, a vessel duly registered in 

 and sailing from a loyal port of the United States. When later, 

 commissioners appointed to apportion the award of the Geneva 

 Tribunal, considered the claim of the owners of the Alleganean, they 

 decided that the waters of Chesapeake Bay could not be used for the 

 operations of war to the injury of the United States. The waters 

 of this bay are open to the vessels of all nations for all peaceful 

 purposes." 



Taking up for a moment the Conception Bay Case, reported in 

 L. R., 2 App. Cas., p. 394, so much relied upon by counsel for Great 

 Britain : 



Conception Bay is one of the bays on the non-treaty coast of New- 

 foundland. This case was decided on the ground that the Judicial 

 Committee of the Privy Council of Great Britain was bound by the 

 Act 59 Geo. Ill, cap. 38, the Act of 1819, purporting to carry out 

 the terms of the treaty of 1818, and on the further ground that the 

 Act was an assertion of dominion " and had not been questioned by 

 any nation from 1819 down to 1872," and the Privy Council stated 

 that this " would be very strong in the tribunals of any nation to 

 show that this bay is by prescription part of the exclusive territory 

 of Great Britain." 



