1758 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



go there in a vessel. Therefore the right is given to a vessel ; and if 

 you must fish in a vessel, and the right is given to a vessel, that means 

 you can put anybody you like on board the vessel, and he will have 

 the right to fish. That is the use, the meaning, to which that proposi- 

 tion is to be applied. There is not a step in the reasoning which, of 

 course, will hold good. The vessel is the mere thing that carries the 

 inhabitant It has no rights. Mr. Root himself says later on that 

 he is only using the word " vessel " and the rights of the vessel as a 

 convenient way of indicating the rights of the master ; and, of course, 

 it is a convenient way. We always speak of a vessel as a sort of 

 person. The seaman does more than talk of it as a person. He in- 

 dicates it by the sex, which is to him an object of continual interest. 

 He says : " She does this " or " She does the other thing." But that 

 does not mean anything more than the rights of the master. And if 

 that is all that Mr. Root means by referring to the vessel the right 

 of the master I respectfully submit that it is better he should say so. 

 But the moment he begins to say so the whole fabric of his argument 

 goes; because if you simply say an American master is entitled to oro 

 with other American inhabitants into the treaty waters and fish, we 

 are all agreed. 



Next, having got his vessel treated as if it were the person entitled 

 to receive the benefits, he goes on I need not read the second para- 

 graph, because that refers to Question 1 : 



"An American vessel seeking to exercise the treaty right is not 

 bound to obtain a licence from the Government of Newfoundland, 

 and, if she does not purpose to trade as well as fish, she is not bound to 

 enter at any Newfoundland custom-house." 



Nobody says she is bound to obtain a license from the Government 

 of Newfoundland. I never heard anybody contend that she \\a>. 

 The Government of Newfoundland has nothing to do with the vessel. 

 It is the inhabitants that it has to do with. They may come in a 

 vessel of any kind they please, licensed or unlicensed. We cannot 

 keep them out if they are simply going to fish under the treaty. W- 

 can keep them out if they if they are going to trade. But Mr. Root 

 is laying down a proposition there as if he were controverting some 

 proposition of ours. Not at all. We do not say that the vessel is 

 bound to obtain a licence. 



The next one is: 



" The only concern of the Government of Newfoundland with 

 such a vessel" 



We have got away from the inhabitant now, but still I mean to 

 keep him in. I mean to follow this vessel up in each of these propo- 

 sitions with its proper equivalent term " inhabitant " : 



" The only concern of the Government of Newfoundland with such 

 a vessel is to call for proper evidence that she is an American vessel, 

 and, therefore, entitled to exercise the treaty right," 



