1938 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



modify our right, or the rights which Americans go there to exercise, 

 nevertheless there must always be a question, what is a police regula- 

 tion? We have had a good illustration here, in this subject of net in- 

 terference. That was referred to in some one of the American 

 printed papers as not being a police regulation. Mr. Turner staled 

 in his opening argument for the United States that he thought it was. 

 Sir Robert Finlay said he thought it was. I agree with both of them 

 that it is a police regulation ; but suppose a fisherman in Newfound- 

 land had been of the opinion that that was not a police regulation, it 

 was not his business to determine his conduct according to his view : 

 that is a matter the Government must consider : " Is it a police reg- 

 ulation ? " 



And so, wherever the line is drawn, the question as to which side 

 of the line statutes fall must be raised, not by individuals, but by the 

 Government whose rights may be or are alleged to be affected. 



THE PRESIDENT: May I ask, Mr. Senator Root, would there be any 

 difference in the decision of the question whether the laws have been 

 overstepped in regard to this treaty, or in regard to any other treaty ( 

 Is this treaty in a peculiar situation or of a peculiar character in 

 this respect? 



SENATOR ROOT : I think, Mr. President, it belongs to a special class 

 of treaties, and the considerations regarding it must proceed upon 

 somewhat different principles from the treaties of any other class; 

 and assigning to this treaty its proper place in the class to which I 

 think it belongs will be the function of another portion of my argu- 

 ment. 



Let me state what I think is the question involved in the drawing 

 of this line. 



Granted that all laws of a general character, controlling the con- 

 duct of men within the territory of Great Britain, are effective, bind- 

 ing, and, beyond objection by the United States, competent to be made 

 upon the sole determination of Great Britain or her colony, without 

 accountability to anyone whomsoever; granting that there is some- 

 where a line beyond which it is not competent for Great Britain to 

 go, or beyond which she cannot rightfully go, because to go beyond 

 it would be an invasion of -the right granted to the United States in 

 1818; was. the legal effect of the grant of 1818 to leave the determina- 

 tion as to where that line is to be drawn to the uncontrolled judg- 

 ment of the grantor, either upon the grantor's consideration as to 

 what would be a reasonable exercise of its sovereignty over the 

 British Empire, or upon the grantor's consideration of what would 

 be reasonable towards the grantee? 



Or, was the legal effect of the grant to establish a right which by 

 its own terms drew the line beyond which the grantor could not right- 

 fully go with statutes modifying or restricting the right, or the ex- 



