1498 NOKTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



over against this western coast. If for no other reason, it was of 

 almost vital importance that the bait fishery on the west coast should 

 be preserved unrestrained, unrestricted, and unregulated. There is 

 another condition it is not a theory, but a condition which has to be 

 borne constantly in mind in dealing with this entire situation. In the 

 first place, it is palpable that the United States fishery must be con- 

 ducted from vessels. It is, as Sir Edward Grey said, a ship fishery. 

 Our vessels have to sail 800 or 900 miles in order to reach the treaty 

 coast. They must therefore be sea-going vessels. Our Counter-Case 

 Appendix shows that the value of an ordinary United States fishing- 

 vessel is 15.000 dollars, and that its outfit runs from 2,500 to 3,000 

 dollars, in addition to its actual value. In order to do a commercially 

 profitable business it must do it promptly. It must fish quickly. If 

 it is compelled to leave the banks and go back to New England ports 

 for each securing of bait, the season is broken up and rendered value- 

 less. One thing more. The Fortune Bay incident in 1886 demon- 

 strated, as it has been demonstrated several times since, that the in- 

 habitants of Newfoundland are determined that the United States 

 fishermen shall not take their bait. The effort to take bait in For- 

 tune Bay resulted in the assault. It is true that it was upon Sunday, 

 but you cannot read the story of those depositions from beginning to 

 end and not see that it was the loss of livelihood that it was the tak- 

 ing by Americans of fish which the Fortune Bay people had been in 

 the habit of selling that caused the difficulty. The same thing oc- 

 curred on the other side of the same peninsula years afterwards. 

 American vessels, seeking to save money by taking their bait them- 

 selves, were driven off and compelled to buy. Precisely the same 

 thing was suggested at the mass meeting at the Bay of Islands in 

 1905. They reminded the Government of Newfoundland of what 

 occurred at Fortune Bay; they reminded the Government of New- 

 foundland that their subsistence and the lives of their families de- 

 pended on the traffic with the Americans, and they asked whose fault 

 it would be if troubles arose. That is a condition and not a theory, 

 and it is a fact which discloses the antagonism of these people an 

 antagonism that we cannot feel angry about, one to which the Ameri- 

 cans have constantly yielded in their purchase of bait rather than to 

 take the bait themselves certainly in later years; and it demonstrates 

 and discloses an underlying condition which must be considered in 

 dealing with the legislation and conduct of this colony towards the 

 United States. 



I observe that the hour of 12 o'clock has arrived. 



THE PRESIDENT : If you please, we shall continue at 2 o'clock. 



[Thereupon, at 12 o'clock, the Tribunal took a recess until 2 o'clock 

 p. M.] 



