2038 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



land and France, consents to renounce the right of fishing, which be- 

 longs to him in virtue of the aforesaid article of the Treaty of Utrecht 

 from Cape Bonavista to Cape St. John, situated on the eastern coast 

 of Newfoundland, . . . and His Majesty the King of Great Britain 

 consents on his part, that the fishery assigned to the subjects of His 

 Most Christian Majesty, beginning at the said Cape St. John, passing 

 to the north, and descending by the western coast of the Island of 

 Newfoundland, shall extend to the place called Cape Raye, .... The 

 French fishermen shall enjoy the fishery which is assigned to them by 

 the present article, as they had the right to enjoy that which was as- 

 signed to them by the treaty of Utrecht." 



The right in all that great part of the coast which was not affected 

 by this renunciation on one end and addition on the other remained 

 untouched, and the addition was to be upon the same basis as that 

 which remained untouched ; that is to say, it was the same right which 

 was granted by the treaty of 1763. 



Then, in the declaration, which Mr. Turner has very justly char- 

 acterised as a modality, there is no additional right given to France 

 none whatever. The seventy years of exercise of this French right 

 had developed quarrels and controversies between the French and the 

 English. The French were claiming that their right was exclusive. 

 The British were refusing to assent to that, but what Great Britain 

 did do was to say : 



"The King having entirely agreed with His Most Christian Ma- 

 jesty upon the articles of the definitive treaty, will seek every means 

 which shall not only ensure the execution thereof, with his accustomed 

 good faith and punctuality, but will besides give, on his part, all pos- 

 sible efficacy to the principles which shall prevent even the least 

 foundation of dispute for the future." 



It was the execution of the existing treaty, and : 



" To this end," 



That is to the end of executing that treaty. 



" and in order that the fishermen of the two nations may not give 

 cause for daily quarrels, His Britannic Majesty will take the most 

 positive measures for preventing his subjects from interrupting, in 

 any manner, by their competition, the fishery of the French, during 

 the temporary exercise of it which is granted to them upon the coasts 

 of the Island of Newfoundland; and he will, for this purpose, cause 

 the fixed settlements, which shall be formed there, to be removed." 



JUDGE GRAY: That language, "by their competition," is not in the 

 treaty ? 



SENATOR ROOT: No, sir, it is in that declaration; and, of course, 

 that language implies necessarily that there is competition, and that 

 there is a right of competition. There is no surrender of the rifrht. 

 There is an agreement to do, for the purpose of executing the treaty 

 precisely what Great Britain, in fact, did by the Act and Order-in- 



