ARGUMENT OF ELIHU BOOT. 1979 



cod-fishermen, who go to the Labrador, have got up there and they 

 have got their cod-traps set and their cod-tray locations preempted. 

 Then, on p. 209 : 



" No bultows or tra*wls shall be used before the fifteenth day of 

 August in any year on the fishing grounds within three miles of the 

 Coast of Labrador or Islands on said Coast between a line to be 

 drawn south-east from Cape Charles and a line drawn from east and 

 West from White Islands in Domino Run." 



That is from a line somewhere down here (indicating on map) 

 running up off this map. So that the best location for taking cod- 

 fish is pre-empted for nearly two months by the Newfoundland 

 fishermen Avith his cod-trap and contrivances before the American 

 fisherman, who uses the bultow, is at liberty to go up on that coast 

 and set out his bultow. When he gets there he finds the places where 

 he would put his bultows for the purpose of taking cod-fish pre- 

 empted by the cod-traps, again protecting the shore fisherman as 

 against the vessel fisherman. 



As I have said before, I am not blaming these people for wanting 

 to protect themselves, but that is what they are doing and the effect 

 of it all is to substitute a fishery dictated by the wants, the opinions, 

 the local option of these dwellers in these little fishing communities 

 along the coasts for the great fishing interests you have illustrated 

 upon the shores of Holland and Scotland, to substitute the little 

 humble fishers' daily tale of fish for a great fishery such as that which 

 has built up the power and strength of Holland, and is one of the 

 great sources of the wealth of Scotland, England, and Ireland to-day. 



That is prohibited to us because these laws are the laws of shore 

 fishermen, dictated by their wants and unrestrained by the large con- 

 siderations which would apply to the whole of this fishery if it were 

 the fishery of a single nation and a single government' were to weigh 

 in the balance the broader and the narrower interests. 



Now, we come to still further expressions of purpose, a little differ- 

 ent in origin, not originating with the fishermen, but originating with 

 the Government of Newfoundland. This has reference to Sir Robert 

 Bond's Question Six proposition. He has discovered that the Ameri- 

 cans are not at liberty to go into any bays, or harbours, or inlets, or 

 creeks on the coast of Newfoundland, and it is his purpose, he says, 

 to keep them out. I read from p. 414 of the United States Counter- 

 Case Appendix. He says: 



" I venture to go further than the learned counsel for the United 

 Staies in his admission "- 



He is referring to an admission made in the Halifax Case. 



" and to express the opinion, after very careful consideration, that 

 American fishermen not only have no right to land and seine her- 

 rings, but they have no right to enter into the harbours, creeks, or 



