AEGUMENT OF ELIHU ROOT. 2143 



tion, which I should be very glad to have you consider a letter from 

 Lord Kimberley to Lord Lisgar of the 16th February, 1871, p. 636 

 of the American Appendix. 



THE PRESIDENT: The letter from the Minister of Foreign Affairs 

 to Lord Stanley, with its enclosure, has not been published ? 



SENATOR ROOT: We have not been favoured with that. No; I 

 should like to see it. Of course we have it not, and it is not here. 



The knowledge of its existence serves merely the purpose of certi- 

 fying to us that this conclusion announced by Lord Stanley was a 

 conclusion upon grounds of reason. 



The Earl of Kimberley, writing from the Foreign Office to Lord 

 Lisgar in 1871, the time when the making of the new treaty was 

 proposed (Lord Lisgar was Governor-General of Canada), says, 

 reading from the third paragraph on p. 636: 



"As at present advised, Her Majesty's Government are of opinion 

 that the right of Canada to exclude Americans from fishing in the 

 waters within the limits of three marine miles of the coast, is beyond 

 dispute, and can only be ceded for an adequate consideration." 



Then the third paragraph below : 



" With respect to the question, what is a Bay or Creek, within the 

 meaning of the first Article of the Treaty of 1818, Her Majesty's 

 Government adhere to the interpretation which they have hitherto 

 maintained of that Article, but they consider that the difference 

 which has arisen with the United States on this point, might be a 

 fit subject for compromise." 



I cite this for two purposes. One is, the terms in which the ques- 

 tion is stated; the right of Canada to exclude Americans from fish- 

 ing in the waters within the limits of 3 marine miles from the coast, 

 is what is said to be beyond dispute. The question, what is a bay 

 or creek within the meaning of the first article of the treaty, is a 

 matter on which Her Majesty's Government adhere to the interpre- 

 tation they hitherto maintained, but they consider it a fair subject 

 for compromise. 



Another statement of the question is to be found at p. 629 of the 

 American Appendix, and that is a memorandum made for the For- 

 eign Office, and sent by the Earl of Kimberley, the Minister of For- 

 eign Affairs, to Sir John Young, who was then Governor-General of 

 Canada, on the 10th October, 1870. That is, it was a memorandum 

 made for the Foreign Office, I do not know where, but adopted by 

 the Foreign Office, and transmitted by the Minister of Foreign Af- 

 fairs to the Governor-General of Canada. 



This memorandum recites the convention of 1818, quotes the re- 

 nunciation clause, and proceeds: 



" The right of Great Britain to exclude American fishermen from 

 waters within three miles of the coast is unambiguous, and it is 



