ARGUMENT OF SIR WILLIAM ROBSON. 1911 



ise or leave unauthorised in their vessels? Has that anything to do 

 with me, or anything to do with this treaty ? 



" the commercial privileges on the treaty coasts accorded by agree- 

 ment or otherwise to United States trading vessels generally ? " 



Now I ask again: What do they mean when they say, are the 

 United States entitled? Entitled how? On what title are they in- 

 viting the judgment of this Tribunal? Do they mean entitled by the 

 treaty? No, they do not mean that. They do not pretend to mean 

 that, because the treaty certainly gives no title to any vessel to have 

 commercial privileges. Mr. Elder would not maintain that for a 

 moment. So, they do not mean entitled by the treaty. Then, do they 

 mean, entitled by agreement or otherwise? If they are asking me a 

 question as to the validity and extent of the rights which they claim 

 to possess under some agreements or otherwise, I ask : " Where are 

 your agreements; produce them; let us see what kind of title they 

 give you. You are suggesting here that they give commercial privi- 

 leges to United States trading vessels generally. Very well, show us 

 that they do so if you want our opinion upon them." "' Oh," says Mr. 

 Elder, " I do not want to produce these other documents ; you 

 1156 must not have the documents, because the question assumes 

 that they exist and not only assumes that they exist but that 

 the} 7 give rights to trading vessels generally, and that is all you have 

 to do with it." I say: "Very good; let me assume that they give 

 rights to trading vessels generally; does that show that the treaties 

 which give rights to trading vessels give rights to vessels which are 

 not trading vessels but fishing- vessels ? " If you say that the language 

 used by these documents which conferred rights on trading vessels 

 was broad enough to cover fishing- vessels, I say: "Produce your 

 documents." Rights given to the owners of trading-vessels are very 

 particular and special things. You do not give to a trading vessel the 

 right to do what it likes. You give to a trading vessel the right to 

 trade; that is to buy and sell. That is not a right conferred by a 

 fishing treaty nor upon a fishing- vessel. If you want to know whether 

 vessels may exercise such rights, then show us the documents creating 

 the rights. " No, no," says Mr. Elder, " you cannot have those docu- 

 ments." Mr. Elder says : " You have got my speech ; that is quite 

 enough ; no documents, no treaties, no agreements." 



Well, Mr. Elder's speech was very good, but it is not quite a sub- 

 stitute for the documents under which he is claiming certain rights 

 and asking this Tribunal to affirm those rights. He cannot get trad- 

 ing rights under this treaty. How are trading rights determined? 

 They are determined by separate and special treaties, and one thing 

 clear in all these documents for the last hundred years is that we 

 have kept this fishing right apart from trading; we would not even 

 let them trade to the extent of buying bait. We would not even let 



