1884 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



They did not want to. They knew perfectly well that the United 

 States would endure almost any sacrifice rather than do it, but they 

 had to do it. We demanded it. And that is the point of view from 

 which the clause must be construed. Even before Dr. Lohman was 

 kind enough to draw my attention to it, I had observed that that 

 mistaken statement in the letter of Messrs. Rush and Gallatin was 

 being accepted as a fact; but I thought perhaps it would not matter 

 very much ; because, of course, whether they insisted or not, still they 

 had given up these bays, and we were entitled to have the clause con- 

 strued according to its natural meaning. But it was not unnatural 

 that, once it was accepted, it should have a great effect on the con- 

 struction ; and I respectfully submit, now, that as far as that impor- 

 tant point is concerned, it is done with. The notion that the Amen- 

 cans were putting forward this renunciation as something good fo^ 

 them can no longer be insisted upon. 



Now then, how does the case stand when that misconception is 

 swept out of the way ? It stands in tnis way : Up to 1782, America 

 treats bays as national property. France does it; England does it; 

 everybody in British North America does it. The property of the 

 State carries with it, as a natural consequence, the right to regulate 

 the fisheries in those bays; the right to exclude foreigners from 

 fishing there. Therefore, when we come to give the Americans the 

 right, in 1783, of fishing, we acknowledged their right in the high 

 seas, and we presented them with the liberty of fishing in our bays. 

 Having done that in 1783, we found that it was a mistake; that the 

 inconveniences caused by it to us were serious; that the friction 

 was endless, as I am quite sure it would be again if we had to make 

 a similar concession ; that it was impossible, when all bays are thrown 

 open, to prevent fishermen from coming into the smaller bays (be- 

 cause it is there the greater danger is, although, of course, it is a 

 serious danger in the larger bays), and insisting upon landing. 

 And if we want to prevent them from landing, the only way is to 



say : " This bay is our territory. You shall not come in at all. 

 1140 You shall not fish here." And therefore we told them we 



would not negotiate unless they gave up the claim to fish 

 within our bays. That is the plain way in which we put it. We 

 said : " We will not negotiate." That was years before the treaty 

 was made, in 1814; and then, afterwards, when negotiations are 

 opened in 1815 and 1816, we kept on saying, and put it in the plainest 

 terms we could find in the English language : " You are going to bo 

 kept out of our bays. Understand that is to be the condition before 

 you sit down to take a pen in your hands to make a bargain at all." 

 And the Americans say : " Good. We agree." And Mr. Monroe 

 says to his negotiators : kt You have our authority to assent to a clause 

 in which we shall desist from claiming the right to fish in the bays," 



