1478 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



THE PRESIDENT : What is that page, Mr. Elder ? 

 893 MR. ELDER: P. 366 of the United States Counter-Case Ap- 

 pendix. I was referring to it merely as to the number of 

 people who were employed. It is the fourth paragraph of that pas- 

 sage the paragraph marked 4 : 



" Shipped beyond three-miles 635 men ; engagement at St. Pierre, 

 23; at Sydney, 77." 



In another despatch, at p. 376, he gives the same figures, except 

 as to Sydney, and there he says that there were 250 shipped at 

 Sydney and elsewhere. 



That is one of the early references to the practice which was coun- 

 tenanced under the modus vivendi between the two Governments, 

 the colony of Newfoundland having passed a statute prohibiting its 

 inhabitants from shipping on board American vessels, and penalizing 

 American vessels if they shipped or attempted to ship Newfound- 

 landers. The practice grew up of hiring men just outside the 3-mile 

 limit, just beyond the jurisdiction of the colony; and that practice, 

 in each one of the arrangements by modus, was countenanced, in 

 one instance it being expressly put in, that the dignity of the colony 

 should be preserved by their being shipped well outside the 3-mile 

 limit. 



In reading the record the Court will see the bitterness of feeling 

 which was caused among the fishermen against the Government by a 

 policy which compelled them, oftentimes in violent weather, and, at 

 the risk of their lives, to go practically out to sea, in order to ship 

 on board vessels on which they had been accustomed to serve for 

 many years. I will not pause to go into that further. 



Again, I wish to refer to the report of the senior naval officer of 

 the 10th December. He made a number of reports during that fall 

 with regard to the situation, which are all of them instructive. At 

 pp. 371 and 372 of the United States Counter-Case Appendix, is to 

 be found the report of the 10th December. In the first paragraph 

 of the report I want to call attention to one thing, which is pre- 

 liminary. Taking the first three questions, namely, the relations of 

 the Newfoundland fishermen, of the American fishermen, and of the 

 Canadian fishermen, he says, as to the situation at that time: 



" Taking the first three together, I find that the Newfoundland 

 men were quite satisfied with the system which obtained till the begin- 

 ning of last year, under which they caught herring with their own 

 appliances, and sold them to whomsoever they chose. Since they 

 have been forbidden to sell them to Americans, some of them sell to 

 Canadians, or to local buyers, as they may have done before, whilst 

 others, determined to work for their old comrades the Americans 

 shipped on board American schooners in spite of all obstacles, and 

 followed their calling in, virtually, the same manner as they had 

 always been accustomed to ; their contention being, in the first place, 



