1760 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



national and sovereign right which I have not parted with. In the 

 argument on Question 1, we saw clearly enough that the sovereign 

 right is a thing which can only be lost by express and explicit grant. 

 There has been no such grant. And I say therefore : " You are not 

 entitled to bring them in." 



With regard to the position of inhabitants of Newfoundland, there 

 again I express my respectful astonishment that the United States 

 should even imagine anything has happened to deprive Newfound- 

 land of its jurisdiction over its own citizens. Newfoundland has a 

 perfect right, an undoubted right, to say to its own citizens : " You 

 shall not take service upon an American ship." 



There may be different opinions as to the wisdom of such a course, 

 as to the prudence of a small State throwing down, even in a purely 

 fiscal fight, such a challenge to a great republic like the United States ; 

 but we are not here to teach wisdom, or preach wisdom to govern- 

 ments. All we have to do is to say, if they are going to quarrel, what 

 are the weapons they may use. We cannot take away from the 

 United States the right to close its markets; neither can we take away 

 from Newfoundland the right to close its ports. We cannot exercise 

 jurisdiction over inhabitants of the American Republic. On the 

 other hand, we have no right to take away one jot or tittle of the 

 jurisdiction which Newfoundland, as a self-governing State, claims 

 to exercise over its own citizens. 



I do not understand it to be disputed that Newfoundland has that- 

 right. I suppose it will not be contended that the Americans, because 

 they are entitled to bring in foreigners, in their view, are entitled 

 to bring in races excluded by treaty. After the Treaty of Utrecht 

 we would not allow the French to come in. They had no treaty 

 rights there. At considerable cost in various material assets, France 

 was content to forego her rights upon the western coast, or at least 

 to forego a very substantial portion of them. It is open to the 

 United States to go round to France and say : " You have given up 

 your rights, or most of them, on the west coast, but we can let you 

 in. All you have to do is to let your seamen be employed in our 

 boats, and we will give you all the benefit that you got, as a training 

 ground for your navy." France would say: "Well, Newfoundland 

 never paid us. Never." They had to give bounties to keep their 

 fishermen going there. And that was one of the things that Sir 

 Robert Bond, quite properly, most properly, tried to avoid. He was 

 absolutely entitled to do it, and justified in doing it, in trying to 

 save his own fishermen from the consequences of the aggressive bounty 

 system that had been adopted by France. And now, appar- 

 1065 ently, France having given all these benefits in order to get a 

 training ground for its seamen, pays nothing to make a bargain 

 with the United States by which it shall retain all these privileges, 



