1488 NORTH ATT .ANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



(in which inhabitants of the United States are debarred from fishing 

 by the Convention of 1818) for any of the four specified purposes, 

 unless all the members of the crew are inhabitants of the United 

 States." 



So that the position of Great Britain as placed there and placed 

 here with regard to the employment, is not that all the members of 

 the crew must be inhabitants of the United States, but only, that 

 the persons who can take fish are to be inhabitants of the United 

 States. In response to an inquiry that was made of him, Sir Robert 

 Finlay said distinctly, it was the person who took the fish out of 

 the water that must be an inhabitant of the United States. Sir 

 Edward concurs, or rather he recites that Mr. Root concurs in his 

 statement, that ships, strictly speaking, can have no rights or duties, 

 and so, whenever the term is used, " it is but a convenient or custom- 

 ary form of describing the owners or masters rights." That is 

 quoted from Mr. Root. 



At p. 1005 he says that he cannot agree that only the regulations 

 in existence in 1818 would now be binding upon American fishermen. 



At p. 1006 he says that he will gladly pay. the utmost considera- 

 tion to any American representations about the reasonableness of 

 regulations. He speaks, I think, on that page, to the question of 

 entry and clearance of American vessels at Newfoundland ports : 



" I would remind Your Excellency that the American vessels 

 engaged in the winter fishery in the Bay of Islands must pass in 

 close proximity to several Custom Houses, and that it cannot be 

 said that the obligation to report and clear unduly interferes with the 

 operations of the vessels. On this point, however, His Majesty's 

 Government would, in order to secure an arrangement for the next 

 fishing season, be prepared to defer discussion of the question of 

 right. 



And so on. 



At another place, under Question 6, to which I shall call the atten- 

 tion of the Tribunal, he says that the American vessels in the Bay of 

 Islands, must pass three custom houses in order to engage in their 

 winter herring fishery, and yet one of the questions presented in this 

 case, Question 6, is Newfoundland's denial that American vessels 

 have any right in the bays at all. In order to pass three custom 

 houses you have to sail a dozen miles through the Bay of Islands. 



Sir Edward Grey apparently had no idea, even after his inter- 

 view with Sir Robert Bond, that American vessels were excluded 

 from the bays. 



He says, that inasmuch as Newfoundland fishing-vessels do not pay 

 light dues under similar circumstances, Americans need not. On the 

 12th July, 1907, upon receipt of that letter (United States Case Ap- 

 pendix, pp. 1007 and 1008), Mr. Reid proposes a reference to The 

 Hague Tribunal. 



