1460 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



" If this bill goes into force, as I believe it will, it must be the 

 means of keeping up the high price of fish, for if we curtail competi- 

 tion we must obtain that result." 



That Act became a law on the 15th June, 1905. 



Fishing-vessels for the winter herring fishery leave our coast in 

 October, and the fishery is prosecuted into January, or until the ice 

 closes in, so that the vessels are driven out. No warning was given 

 to American fishing-vessels, no communication was had with the 

 United States Government concerning this Act. Willingness to 

 present their colonial legislation to the United States for its con- 

 sideration was not exhibited, certainly, in that particular instance. 

 The vessels left for the coast, and then there is a mystery. Some- 

 thing happened, and it is not quite clear what it was that did happen. 

 The first communication on the subject is at p. 964 of the United 

 States Case Appendix, and is contained in a letter from Mr. Root. 

 He says that he has just received from Senator Lodge a communica- 

 tion containing 



" the following statement, based, I assume, upon information received 

 from his constituents in Massachusetts, who are interested in the 

 fisheries : " 



I perhaps do not need to state that Mr. Lodge is a Senator from 

 the State of Massachusetts. The communication is quoted : 



" ' Newfoundland cruiser "Fiona" has arrived in Bay of Islands, on 

 Treaty Coast, with Minister of Marine and Fisheries on board. 



882 The Minister has forbidden all vessels on American register 

 to fish on Treaty Coast, where they are now, and where they 



have fished unmolested since 1818.' ' : 



I call attention to the fact that in all the negotiations which fol- 

 lowed this letter of Mr. Root in 1905, that statement that American 

 vessels on register had fished on the treaty coast unmolested since 

 1818, was never contradicted or qualified in any way, shape, or 

 manner. 



Mr. Root goes on to say : 



" The American boats are already upon the Treaty Coast. I have 

 felt bound to advise Senator Lodge that I have no doubt of their 

 right to proceed to take fish upon the ground where the Minister of 

 Marine and Fisheries of Newfoundland has prohibited them from 

 fishing. The history of the fisheries and the numerous difficulties 

 which have arisen upon the Treaty Coast indicate that this conflict 

 between the orders of the Newfoundland Government and the rights 

 of our fishermen, as we conceive them to be, may lead to very serious 

 and regrettable incidents. It seems unfortunate that the Govern- 

 ment of Newfoundland should undertake to prohibit a practice justi- 

 fied by the construction of the various Treaties relating to the New- 

 foundland fisheries for more than a century without any suggestion 

 by the Government of Great Britain that that Government proposes 

 any change of construction, and without any exchange of views 

 between the two Governments upon the subject." 



