1486 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



898 legislation, to the effect that nothing in the chapter is ' to affect 

 the rights and privileges granted by Treaty to the subjects of 

 any State in amity with His Majesty.' The appellants, however, do 

 not possess any treaty rights, as they are British subjects, resident in 

 this Colony. Whether ' inhabitants of the United States ' who ' in 

 common with the subjects of His Britannic Majesty ' possess ' the 

 liberty to take fish of every kind ' on certain parts of the coasts of 

 Newfoundland, could lawfully have shipped bait-fish on board the 

 Ralph L. Hall at Woods Island without a special license, is imma- 

 terial, and cannot affect the rights or liabilities of the appellants." 



I do not find it necessary to balance the weight given in each direc- 

 tion, but it will be remembered that the Government's case consisted 

 in part of the claim that the men had never shipped on board the 

 " Ralph L. Hall ; " that they had not conformed to the United States 

 regulations concerning the shipment of mariners; that they had not 

 subscribed the articles; that the mate had written the names of, I 

 think, twenty-seven men on his book ; and even that was not done at 

 the time of the alleged shipment, so that there was an informality, to 

 say the least, upon which the Court places considerable stress. 



At p. 393, about eight or nine lines down, the Court says : 



" Since then a commission was taken for the examination in 

 Gloucester, Massachusetts, of the master of the Ralph L. Hall and 

 others; applicants have, however, failed to show that the ship's arti- 

 cles were signed by them. On the contrary, the evidence taken upon 

 the commission is, that the names of some 23 fishermen, including 

 the appellants, were written on the articles by the mate of the Ralph 

 L. Ilall, and that the legal requirements as to signature and attesta- 

 tion were not compiled (complied) with. The United States Ship- 

 ping Commissioner at Gloucester, who was examined as a witness, 

 proved that in the United States law there is no distinction between 

 seamen and fishermen as regards the forms and nature of their ship- 

 ping agreements." 



I call attention to that at this moment because of its relation to 

 Question No. 2, to which I will- ask the Court's attention. 



Some impression seems to have been made by the various protests, 

 and we find a telegram from Governor MacGregor to Lord Elgin, 

 of the 8th May, 1907 : 



"Am informed by Attorney-General that he does not intend to 

 enter any further prosecutions against fishermen in position of Dubois 

 and Crane on account of last season transactions." 



On the 14th May Sir Robert Bond was at the colonial conference 

 in London. He made a long speech at that conference, at which of 

 course were present the representatives of various other colonies. I 

 think one may fairly say he sought to array against the British Min- 

 istry the entire force of British colonial support. He had at one 

 time alleged in his speech of the 7th April that he was sustained by 

 all the colonies of His Majesty. I do not find it necessary to read 



