ARGUMENT OF JOHN S. EWART. 1363 



It is not necessary to say much not necessary perhaps to say any- 

 thing upon this second question. Sir James Winter has dealt with it 

 at large. Every nation has a right to prohibit the export of its 

 products, as it pleases, and moreover this difference is not included in 

 the question submitted to the Tribunal. Newfoundland does not 

 refuse to fishing- vessels that which she accords to trading- vessels, and 

 the question is directed to the claim of fish ing- vessels to be placed 

 upon the same footing as trading- vessels. So far as this question of 

 the selling of herring for consumption is concerned, those two classes 

 of vessels are on precisely the same footing. 



As to the refusal to sell bait and to permit transhipment of fish 

 and so on, that also is not properly included in the question, for what 

 the United States want cannot be included under the head of " com- 

 mercial privileges." It is not " commercial privileges " that the 

 United States fishermen desire ; it is " industrial advantages." I 

 see no reason why an American fishing-vessel, merely because of its 

 character, should not be permitted to enjoy the privileges of a trad- 

 ing-vessel. If for example an American fishing-vessel carried mer- 

 chandise from a United States port to a Newfoundland port, and if 

 it paid proper regard to the local regulations with regard to trading- 

 vessels, it would be welcomed, but that is not what the United States 

 or its fishermen demand. The conversion of their fishing- vessels into 

 carriers of goods, or that such vessels should assume in any respect 

 the character of trading-vessels, is not their desire; and what they 

 wish is, in reality, that which cannot be properly spoken of in con- 

 nection with a trading- vessel, for it is not at all associated with trans- 

 portation. It is industrial advantages that they wish. 



Their anxiety is to add to their treaty liberty of taking fish, the 

 very substantial industrial advantage of carrying on their fishing 

 operations from Newfoundland, instead of from the United States. 

 If, when they lose their nets they can run ashore and purchase others; 

 if, instead of bringing ice from a warmer to a colder country, they 

 can secure cheaper supplies as they are needed ; if instead of carrying 

 special seines for catching bait, and devoting valuable time to the 

 catching, they can buy what they want and as they want it; and if 

 when their catch is completed they can at once put their fish on shore 

 for transportation to the United States by larger vessels, and 

 828 resume their work, it is perfectly evident that the privileges 

 which they are thus exercising are not at all those usually 

 accorded to trading- vessels, and cannot properly be classed with them. 



It is quite evident, too, that if American fishermen could secure all 

 those advantages, they would have succeeded in very largely adding 

 to the liberties accorded to them by the treaty. The treaty is clear 

 and specific in its enumeration of the liberties which it concedes. 



