1448 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



said a word to the Government of the United States. It was a ques- 

 tion which all the years of debate had never brought to the surface, 

 not even after the time that Sir Robert Bond himself had presented 

 it in 1905; but, nevertheless, that was included, and for greater in- 

 genuity, the provision was also put into Sir Robert Bond's letter, 

 " any other questions which may be raised." 



I do not mean, in saying this, to minimise the dignity and impor- 

 tance of the questions here submitted. It is only another illustration 

 of the fact, which has so frequently occurred in history, that either 

 the ambition, or the zeal, or the vanity of men, has been overruled to 

 the greatest purposes. 



As the result of the difficulty between Great Britain and this 

 colony, and as the result of a difficulty between the United States 

 and Great Britain, brought to a climax in this manner, we have the 

 honour of standing here and presenting to this distinguished Tri- 

 bunal questions which, for nearly fifty or sixty years, have failed of 

 solution by ordinary diplomatic means, as well as questions of detail 

 and of the highest practical importance to both countries. We have 

 the great advantage of discussing them at a time of the profoundest 

 peace, at a time when counsel on one side and the other, can come 

 together as brethren of a great profession, not acting under any ex- 

 citement or exacerbation of the home press or the home people, 

 875 and under conditions which call for nothing but a statement 

 in the calmest way of the contentions on one side or the other. 



We come here at an opportune moment when the entire press of 

 the United States, from one end of the country to the other, is echo- 

 ing the brilliant words of the President of this Tribunal at its open- 

 ing session, and approving of the doctrine set out of the arbitral 

 determination of international disputes. We may well believe that 

 we are rearing a great white pillar, marking the progress of the prin- 

 ciple of international arbitration. Nor must we fail to note that in 

 Great Britain as well the same condition prevails. If these proceed- 

 ings result, as they surely will, in bringing the contentions of the 

 parties to a peaceful adjustment, we shall be able to record of this 

 arbitration what was recorded of the first arbitration between these 

 two countries; I refer to the arbitration with reference to the St. 

 Croix River boundary. I do not quote accurately, but one of the 

 arbitrators, in substance, said : " In this quiet chamber we have settled 

 the boundaries between two great nations, and have seen to it that 

 the land was not deluged with the blood of our sons or our rivers 

 choked with their dead bodies." 



I have already intimated that what I had to deal with were the 

 questions of more recent origin and, to some extent, of more practical 

 importance Questions 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 ; not questions involving such 

 recondite considerations of international law as Nos. 1 and 5, but 



