1508 NORTH AH ANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



"JUDGE GRAY: Certainly; and the national character of the vessel 

 is a matter of absolute indifference ? 



" SIR EGBERT FINLAY : The national character of the vessel may be 

 of importance only so far as it affects the question, who are the sailors 

 likely to be on board of her. If she is a foreign vessel, she is almost 

 certain, in accordance with the laws of almost every country, to have 

 a certain number of foreign sailors on board. From that point of 

 view, it would not be a matter of indifference. 



"JUDGE GRAY: Then the inhabitants of the United States who 

 happen to be on board a German vessel, for instance, might drop 

 their lines in the treaty waters and fish ? 



" SIR ROBERT FINLAY : Inhabitants of the United States are entitled 

 to fish. There is no restriction imposed with regard to the vessel 

 from which they are to fish; but if American inhabitants came, say, 

 in a Danish vessel, the inference would be almost irresistible that the 

 fishing was carried on by the Danes as well as by the inhabitants of 

 the United States. From that point of view it would be most mate- 

 rial and most important; but I do put it that the treaty is per- 

 fectly express and explicit that the liberty of fishing is given only to 

 the inhabitants of the United States. 



" JUDGE GRAY : And the Colonial authorities would have the right 

 to board an American vessel and to scrutinize the crews and fishing 

 men as to their nationality ? 



" SIR ROBERT FINLAY : That does not at all follow." 



The point that I am urging is this: The logic of his positon, or 

 rather the necessities of his position, compel Sir Robert Finlay, in 

 the argument of the Case, to insist that it is the inhabitant of the 

 United States who is to be considered, that even though he is on 

 board a German vessel, or on board a Norwegian vessel, he can fish ; 

 and that the only importance of the question of the nationality of 

 the ship is the probability that there would be foreigners on board 

 the ship, who might participate in the fishing with the inhabitants 

 of the United States who were on board. 



We submit that that doctrine is absolutely inadmissible; that it- 

 is absolutely inconceivable that the framers of this treaty, in dealing 

 with the United States, ever agreed that ships of a foreign flag should 

 be the ones in which and from which the fishing was to be conducted, 

 and that the argument results in an absolutely necessary absurdity 

 on Great Britain's part. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK : Assuming that your law permitted you 

 to charter a foreign vessel under time charter I do not know whether 

 it does or not; but assuming that it does and that your American 

 seamen came up on board that vessel to fish in Canadian waters, 

 would they have the right to fish ? 



MR. ELDER : You suggest a charter to me, Sir? I am an inhabitant 

 of the United States. You mean, if a foreigner did that? 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK: No; a citizen of the United States a 

 Boston merchant, for instance. 



