ARGUMENT OF SAMUEL J. ELDER. 1465 



that is being advanced, or is the basis of the contention of the United 

 States. At the bottom of p. 978 of the Appendix to the Case of the 

 United States, in Mr. Root's letter to Mr. Whitelaw Eeid of the 30th 

 June, 1906, he says : 



'' The letter which I had the honour to address to the British 

 Ambassador in Washington on the 19th October last stated with 

 greater detail the complaint in my letter to him of the 12th October, 

 1905, to the effect that the local officers of Newfoundland had at- 

 tempted to treat American ships as such, without reference to the 

 rights of their American owners and officers, refusing to allow such 

 ships sailing under register to take part in the fishing on the Treaty 

 coast, although owned and commanded by Americans, and limiting 

 the exercise of the right to fish to ships having a fishing licence. 



" In my communications the Government of the United States 

 objected to this treatment of ships as such that is, as trading-vessels 

 or fishing-vessels, and laid down a series of propositions regarding 

 the treatment due to American vessels on the Treaty coast, based on 

 the view that such treatment should depend, not upon the character 

 of the ship as a registered or licensed vessel, but upon its being 

 American; that is, owned and officered by Americans, and, there- 

 fore, entitled to exercise the rights assured by the Treaty of 1818 

 to the inhabitants of the United States." 



And then, taking up Sir Edward Grey's criticism with regard to 

 his use of that phrase, he calls attention to the fact that Sir Edward's 

 own memorandum falls into the easy method of speaking of the 

 rights of ships ; and then goes on to say : 



885 " Yet we may agree that ships, strictly speaking, can have no 



rights or duties, and that whenever the Memorandum, or the 

 letter upon which it comments, speaks of a ship's rights and duties, 

 it but uses a convenient and customary form of describing the owner's 

 or master's right and duties in respect of the ship. As this is con- 

 ceded to be essentially ' a ship fishing,' and as neither in 1818 nor 

 since could there be an American ship not owned and officered by 

 Americans, it is probably quite unimportant which form of expression 

 is used." 



I shall not pause to read further; but I ought to say that that is 

 a repetition of what Mr. Root, in one of his shorter despatches, at 

 p. 971 of the United States Counter-Case Appendix, the 20th October, 

 1905, said with reference to the same matter. 



The situation in Newfoundland, and the troubles that Sir Robert 

 was meeting, are well illustrated in some of the newspaper quotations 

 which are given in the Counter-Case of the United States. I shall 

 not read any of them, but refer the Tribunal to pp. 341, 342, and 343, 

 publications between the 3rd and 10th October, 1906, from the 

 " Western Star." 



The modus for 1906 was entered into on the 6th and 8th October, 

 and the terms of it I will not stop to consider. 



