1802 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



specifically, but I may perhaps precede my answer by the somewhat 

 general statement of my argument in order to make the answer a 

 little more clear and specific. 



[Thereupon, at 12 o'clock, the Tribunal took a recess until 2 o'clock 

 p. m.] 



AFTERNOON SESSION, FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1910, 2 P. M. 



THE PRESIDENT : Will you kindly continue, Mr. Attorney-General ? 



THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL, SIR WILLIAM ROBSON: I have just been 

 able to procure a copy of the questions that Dr. Lohman has been 

 kind enough to put to me, and with his permission I should like to 

 give short provisional answers to them at once, and then deal with 

 them afterwards in very full detail as I go through the argument. I 

 should like incidentally to give answers indicating the way in which 

 I shall propose to deal with these questions in my argument. 



The first question is : 



" Is there any document or fact before 1818 that proves that either 

 on the side of Great Britain or of the United States, in reference to 

 the fishing rights of the United States, a distinction is made between 

 coasts and bays ? " 



With regard to that I think I shall show I hope I am not too con- 

 fident in saying this I shall show conclusively that both parties, 

 Great Britain and the United States, treated bays (which are of 

 course admittedly component parts of the coast) as being for political 

 and territorial purposes in a different category altogether to the 

 rest of the coast. That is to say, although bays may be treated 

 geographically and properly as component parts of coasts, yet dif- 

 ferent considerations were applied by both countries to bays to 

 what were applied to the open coast, or the coast generally with 

 regard to all territorial purposes, including the right of fishing. I 

 shall show that, and I am much obliged to Dr. Lohman for bring- 

 ing my argument to definite points by which it can be tested. I shall 

 show that Great Britain and the United States, both by international 

 documents and also by the correspondence antecedent to this treaty. 

 by their conduct, their treaties, and their diplomacy all these 

 powers concerned in British North America before 1818 put bays 

 in a separate category to that of coasts generally. Then the question 

 of Dr. Lohman goes on : 



"Did not, at that time, before 1818, the disputes between the two 

 powers rather refer first to the right of fishing on the coast taken in 

 a general sense, without making any distinction between coasts and 

 bays; and secondly, to the question whether landing on the shores 

 should be allowed or not ? " 



I may say because this is all part of the first question that in 

 reference to the extracts from Mr. Adams' letters I shall show, I 

 hope, most conclusively, that Mr. Adams in these letters is speak- 



