1506 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



upon United States vessels to fish. There is no such right conferred 

 by the treaty. The only right conferred by the treaty is upon United 

 States inhabitants. There is no right given to United States vessels 

 to prosecute the fishery upon the coasts of Newfoundland. May I 

 read the words of the Treaty ? " 



Then he proceeds to read them. 

 And, on the same page : 



" All these rights are conferred on persons, the inhabitants of the 

 United States, who are also spoken of, in the concluding portion of 

 the renunciatory clause, as ' American fishermen.' The treaty does 

 not confer any right upon United States vessels. It confers a right 

 upon persons who are inhabitants of the United States." 



Those statements are only partially correct. Nobody contends 

 that vessels, as such, have rights conferred upon them. As I pointed 

 out in the reading from Mr. Root's despatches, he distinctly states 

 that vessels can have no rights and no duties ; and he protests, as the 

 Tribunal will remember, against the Newfoundland Government 

 treating vessels by characterising them, or putting them in classes as 

 trading- vessels on the one hand, or fishing- vessels on the other hand ; 

 and says that the phrase " vessel rights " is but a " convenient and 

 customary " expression, intended to represent the rights of the 

 owners in respect of the ships. But that does not go to the meat of 

 this question. It does not make the final analysis necessary in every 

 case of this kind, because when you go back to inhabitants, no rights 

 were conferred by the treaty upon inhabitants. The right was con- 

 ferred upon the United States. 



Turning to the British Case, Appendix, at p. 30, to prove what 

 is entirely obvious, the treaty of the 20th October, 1818, says : 



" The United States of America and His Majesty the King of the 

 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, desirous," &c. 



They were the contracting parties in this convention, and not the 

 King of Great Britain on the one hand and the inhabitants of the 

 United States upon the other. It is the Ministers Plenipotentiary 

 of the two countries who are named in the first paragraph of the 

 treaty, the Plenipotentiaries of the United States only, and not the 

 representatives of any inhabitants, or any fishing interests, or any- 

 thing of that sort. Article 1 further says that the differences which 

 had arisen were differences between the United States arid Great 

 Britain respecting the liberty claimed by the United States, for the 

 inhabitants thereof, to take, dry and cure fish. 



When it comes to the renunciatory clause, the fishermen of the 

 United States do not renounce. It is the United States which 

 renounces. 



" The United States hereby renounce forever any liberty heretofore 

 enjoyed or claimed by the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry or cure 

 fish within three marine miles," &c. 



