1530 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



when giving the losses of the fleets up there, to give the number of 

 the crews, the Nova Scotians or other nationalities ? Was not that a 

 matter of public notoriety ? 



MR. ELDER : Yes. Our vessels, as a matter of common knowledge, 

 had the inhabitants of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Newfound- 

 land on board to a considerable extent. This is recognised with great 

 frankness by Sir Robert Bond, though he was not addressing himself 

 to that particular point. 



I refer to the United States Counter-Case Appendix, at p. 415, 

 which is his speech of the 7th April, 1905, at the bottom of the page : 



" It is only necessary to have reference to those records " (that is 

 the United States records) " to be convinced of the fact that out of 

 8,000 fishermen who man the fishing fleets of New England some 

 4,000 are Newfoundlanders, about 1,500 are of American birth, and 

 the balance consists of Nova Scotians, New Brunswickers, Portu- 

 guese and Scandinavians. We learn that in some instances whole 

 crews of vessels sailing out of Gloucester are made up of Nova 

 Scotians. The Gloucester News, of November 20. 1902, gave an inter- 

 esting report of the three months' trip of the Schooner Aloha, owned 

 by Messrs. Cunningham & Thompson, in which it was stated that 

 the ' skipper was a native of West Bay, Cape Breton, while his 

 fishery lads were the flower of Shelburne County, N. S.' ' : 



Mr. Root made mention of this well-known fact in his letter to Mr. 

 Reid, from which considerable has been read. It is at the very bot- 

 tom of that page (United States Case Appendix, p. 979). " In 1818 

 and ever since it has been customary for the owners and masters of 

 fishing-vessels to employ crews of various nationalities. During all 

 that period I am not able to discover that any suggestion has ever 

 been made of a right to scrutinise the nationality of the crews em- 

 ployed on the vessels regarding which the treaty right has been 

 exercised." 



Now that was the letter which began the exact and exhaustive dis- 

 cussion between the two Governments with regard to this and other 

 points, it being, however, I believe, the first time when that question 

 had been raised between the two Governments, namely, in 1905. 



Sir Edward Grey replied, and the part of his letter that I desire 



to quote is at p. 1005 of the Appendix to the Case of the United 



States, vol. ii. He does not deny, and never did question, the 



absolute accuracy of Mr. Root's statement with regard to 



926 the nationality of the crews from 1818 down, and the matter 



was before his mind, because, on that page, he makes the only 



denial that he could make, apparently. I read from next to the last 



paragraph : 



" It may be as well to mention incidentally in regard to Mr. Root's 

 contention that no claim to place any such restriction on the French 

 right of fishery was ever put forward by Great Britain; that there 



