1756 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



Some of the States of America have legislated in a sense very ad- 

 verse to other races. They have done so from a feeling which no one 

 is entitled to criticise; they have done so from a feeling of racial self- 

 preservation, but we are not to do it in so far as our fishing industry 

 is concerned in Newfoundland. That is our one industry; we have 

 nothing else, no olive groves and vineyards, no smiling pastures with 

 cattle roaming over them ; we have nothing of that kind, nothing but 

 these stormy seas with their hard-won cod-fish ; but we are to see our 

 waters crowded with aliens upon a strained construction of this treaty 

 which nobody ever thought of until these recent controversies arose, 

 we are to have no right to turn the key in our own front door, we 

 cannot lock our own front door against those persons who may be 

 brought to engage in this business. 



These contingencies would not be of any great importance if there 

 had been prevailing between Newfoundland and the United Stat-~ 

 that peaceful and harmonious condition that one would like to see, 

 but they got to quarrelling about taxes and they got to quarrelling 

 about their markets. The United States say: Our policy is to keep 

 our market to ourselves; so she put on this tax. I forget of how many 

 cents, but I think 40 or 50 cents, a quintal on fish, which keeps fish 

 out. Newfoundland says: Very well, we will adopt the same policy 

 with reference to our bait. And they have that fight going on quite 

 outside this treaty. This treaty does not touch it, although it may be 

 adversely affected if either party steps beyond its proper limits. So 

 they have had a fight, and we do not know when these nations will 

 adopt a policy which will preclude the possibility of a repetition of 

 such conflicts. They may go on for another hundred years, and if 

 so I think it is the duty, or it is the right, of Newfoundland to stand 

 by its treaty and say : We have but one industry, we live on that, we 

 have a population of between 200,000 and 300.000 people who live 

 on this industry, we cannot afford the fiscal policy prevailing to the 

 south of us shutting us out from our natural markets, and we cannot 

 afford to have our waters crowded with anybody who may be in the 

 employ of the United States. The difficulty is, upon the contention 

 of the United States, that they can man every ship with Asiatics, and 

 if a fight arose, if a quarrel arose who can say that that all-powerful 

 weapon might not be used in the hands of the United States. X<> 

 one could complain of it, they will have the right and they will say : 

 We are going on international law, we have the American flag and 

 we have one American on each boat perhaps none. They might 

 fill the whole ship with any sort of persons the master chose and 

 employ them fishing in British North American waters. 



That is the situation of Newfoundland, and if I appear to argue, 

 as I am afraid I may, with some undue insistence upon this point, 

 it is because I must look forward to and recognise the great danger to 



