1364 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



An American fisherman has no claim to anything outside the list. 

 The proposal now made by the United States is to add indefinitely 

 to that list. 



For example, the treaty gives liberty to fish, but none to dry and 

 cure fish, on the west coast of Newfoundland and on the Magdalen 

 Islands. And the contention seems to be that although an American 

 fisherman is thus clearly prohibited from furthering his industry by 

 drying and curing his fish upon those shores, yet that he ought to be 

 allowed to take his fish into the harbours; to pack them in ice there; 

 and to attend to their transhipment by some larger vessel, or by 

 Canadian railways. 



At present British fishermen enjoy the advantage of their geo- 

 graphical position. For the future (if the United States view be 

 upheld) they will have no such advantage. American fishing head- 

 quarters will be on British soil, instead of several hundred miles awa}^ 

 on the eastern coast of the United States. American boats may, if 

 they will, winter at the fishing grounds. The product will go to the 

 United States, either by steam-boats, or in bond over Canadian rail- 

 ways. And thus, instead of bona fide American fishermen travelling 

 long distances in connection with each vessel-load of fish, operating 

 under all the difficulties and restrictions of far-off bases of supplies, 

 we shall have Americans competing in this great industry on almost 

 equal terms as to accommodation and supplies (both for fishing and 

 sustenance) with the British themselves. 



The geographical advantages of the British colonies have often 

 been remarked upon by Americans. Tt is now proposed to appro- 

 priate them. In 1845 (25th March) Mr. Everett, United States Sec- 

 retary of State, in a letter to Lord Aberdeen, British Case Appendix, 

 p. 144, said : 



" The British colonial fishermen possess considerable advantages 

 over those of the United States. The remoter fisheries of New- 

 foundland and Labrador are considerably more accessible to the 

 colonial than to the United States fishermen. The fishing grounds 

 on the coasts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, abounding in cod, 

 mackerel, and herring, lie at the doors of the former; he is there- 

 fore able to pursue his avocation in a smaller class of vessel, and 

 requires a smaller outfit;" 



These are the industrial advantages which the United States de- 

 sire to obtain from us. Fishing is an industry, and is carried on 

 by a class of vessels specially adapted for it. Transportation, on the 

 other hand, is the exclusive occupation of trading- vessels. They carry 

 goods for hire from one place to another. Fishing-vessels leave port 

 not with a cargo, but to seek one on the ocean ; and the transportation 

 home of that cargo is a mere interruption, although a necessary inter- 

 ruption, of the labours of the men. 



