1870 NOBTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



" coasts " or " shores," and the word would be taken as inclusive of 

 bays. Now the question is whether they shall be allowed to enter 

 bays at all. Lord Bathurst says: "You will let them understand 

 that they are to have certain rights, which we do not want to deprive 

 them of, but they are to have their fishing- vessels excluded from bays, 



not speaking of coasts." That is a most important letter. You 

 1131 will see that it is dated the 17th June, 1815. The Treaty of 



Ghent is signed, the question of the fishery is left open, it is 

 to be negotiated afresh. That is all that is said about it by Lord 

 Bathurst. There is nothing about coasts. All he says is: "Under- 

 stand, they are not to be allowed to go into our bays, because their 

 going into them was a source of obstruction and disorder." True, 

 they only want to go in there in order to land, but it would be no 

 earthly use letting them go to within a short distance of the shore 

 and then saying that they were not to land. A more effective rem- 

 edy than that was necessary and Dr. Lohman, of course, is right 

 when he says that the important thing in going into the bay was to 

 land on shore. It was not the only thing, because they wanted also 

 to fish; but the important thing in preventing them from landing 

 was preventing them from going in at all, and that is the line then 

 taken by England, never varied, and never departed from. Attention 

 is now entirely concentrated on bays. 



There being no treaty, the " Jaseur " incident followed, in which, 

 at 45 miles distant from the shore, American ships were warned off. 

 Then came letters from Mr. Monroe complaining. Now came an- 

 other letter from Lord Bathurst to Mr. Baker, and, of course, the 

 Tribunal know that letter well. I am only directing attention to a 

 particular aspect of it. It is on p. 64 of the British Case Appendix. 

 He put two propositions in contrast with each other. He says : 



" You will take an early opportunity of assuring Mr. Monroe that. 

 as, on the one hand, the British Government cannot acknowledge the 

 right of the United States to use the British territory for the purpose 

 connected with the fishery and that their fishing vessels will le ex- 

 cluded from the bays, harbours, rivers, creeks, and inlets of all His 

 Majesty's possessions: so, on the other hand, the British Government 

 does not pretend to interfere with the fishery in which the subjects 

 of the United States may be engaged, either on the Grand Bank of 

 Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or other places in the sea," 



I cannot imagine words which make a clearer assertion of dominion 

 inclusive of the right of fishing. There, he is picking out a bay as a 

 bay, he is classifying it along with harbours, creeks and rivers. He 

 is only saying what everybody had said up to that time with regard 

 to their own bays, but he is making it perfectly clear that they will 

 be excluded. I defy any one to find other terms for achieving that 

 object, other language, than the words which are, in fact, there. He 

 does not say : " I am going to allow them into the bay, but exclude 



