1812 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



every inlet ; it is the land really ; but they were treated as a component 

 part of a coast to be put on an absolutely different footing, for every 

 international purpose, to the rest of the coast. That is how I answer 

 the question, and I am very glad indeed to have questions which are 

 here like lighthouses or buoys if I may revert to the imagery of 

 the morning guiding me to the point in each of these cases as I go 

 through my argument; because the whole of my argument will be 

 directed really to these questions sometimes closely and sometimes 

 remotely, but always, I hope, materially, and bearing them in mind. 



In dealing with this controversy one always has the difficulty which 

 arises in Question 1, and to some extent complicates Question 5, of 

 the different kinds of fisheries, and the disputes that arose about 

 them. 



There were two distinct kinds of fisheries, those which the world 

 at large claimed as being common to mankind, and as to which there 

 were many disputes between England and the rest of the world. 

 England undoubtedly was claiming jurisdiction, property, at one 

 time in the high seas. It was against that claim that the United 

 States directed its strongest protests. They were entirely against 

 any claim on the part of Great Britain to appropriate that part of 

 the high seas which is indicated by these dotted lines on the map here 

 showing the banks. Nobody could say that they were territorial in 

 the ordinary national sense of the word, and the United States was 

 always protesting against that. And one has to remember that in 

 reading their letters. 



But when it comes to maritime jurisdiction of the territorial char- 

 acter, that is to say, jurisdiction over waters that were adjacent to 

 the land, then you will find that the United States from the begin- 

 ning was just as insistent as any other nation in including bays 

 within that territorial jurisdiction. One can see in a moment what 

 an immense difference there is between claiming a jurisdiction here, 

 for instance (indicating on map) there is Banquereau as being 

 under the authority of the English Crown, and here (indicating on 

 map). You cannot mark it by boundaries. Nobody pretends to 

 defend it by ships of war. In the sense that you really take those 

 boundaries there, they are hundreds of feet below the surface. They 

 could not be treated as being in your jurisdiction, leaving all these 

 parts intervening (indicating on map) as being common seas. So 

 that we gave up our claims to that jurisdiction. 



Mark the difference between such a jurisdiction as that, against 

 which Mr. Adams declaimed, and a jurisdiction like this (indicat- 

 ing on map), or that, or that (indicating). There is all the differ- 

 ence in the world, from the point of view of the practical man. 



Consider Chaleur Bay, and just imagine any nation consenting, if 

 it knew what it was about, to throw that open to the war-ships of the 



