1872 HOETH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



SIB W. ROBSON : That is the draft. 



Sra CHARLES FITZPATRICK : What do you mean by saying that it is 

 the draft? 



SIR W. ROBSON: It is the draft retained by us from which the 

 original was sent. 



THE PRESIDENT : The original has been sent to Mr. Baker ? 



SIR W. ROBSON : Yes. 



THE PRESIDENT: And this is the draft which has been retained in 

 the Foreign Office? 



SIR W. ROBSON: Yes, Sir, and we have handed in copies to the 

 Tribunal Here I have the original reply from Mr. Baker. I have, 

 of course, the original of this letter from which I am reading, 

 although I am reading a copy now. 



THE PRESIDENT: That is the letter dated Washington, the 28th 

 November, 1815? 



SIR W. ROBSON: Yes. This is the important part. He refers to 

 the fisheries and to Lord Bathurst's despatch and then he says : " I 

 read to Mr. Monroe the two concluding paragraphs." 



THE PRESIDENT: Will you have the kindness to have handed the 

 originals to the counsel of the United States? 



SIR W. ROBSON : Yes, they have been shown to the other side and 

 have been considered by them. Now, this makes an end to what was 

 rather a troublesome and unfortunate little controversy as to how 

 much Mr. Adams said about it because now we have the matter made 

 clear that Mr. Baker, when he got this letter from Lord Bathurst, 

 did what, of course, one might have known, even without this letter, 

 he would do. An important letter of that kind is generally com- 

 municated in express terms, and he went straight to Mr. Monroe, who 

 was Secretary of State and who represented the United States in 

 the matter, and he said : " Now, then, understand these are the in- 

 structions with which we begin to negotiate; you are to be kept out of 

 bays ; that makes clear what we mean and what we want. The way 

 in which we are going to remedy the inconveniences we have suffered 

 for the last twenty years is this that we are going to keep you out of 

 bays altogether, because, when we let you in and give you landing 

 rights, there are inconveniences and disturbances between the fisher- 

 men of the two countries." Thereafter, the whole of the negotiation 

 up to the treaty of 1818 is on that footing. You cannot make any- 

 thing stronger than that. The language of the subsequent letters 

 cannot detract. from the effect of this one single transaction. Of 

 course, Mr. Adams, when he begins to write, does not quite accu- 

 rately give the effect of his conversation with Lord Bathurst. Per- 

 haps I may be wrong there. Perhaps Lord Bathurst may have been 

 defective in what he told Mr. Adams; I do not think he would be, 

 but it does not matter what he told Mr. Adams because the question 



