2152 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



Chitty speaks of appropriating gulfs and straits, in a quotation 

 my friends have read on the other side. 



De Martens speaks, in a quotation read by the British counsel, in 

 these words: 



" A nation may occupy and extend its dominion beyond " 

 this recognised limit. 



To prescribe for a thing is to claim it upon the ground of posses- 

 sion. We cannot have a better statement of the precise situation than 

 was made by the British negotiators of the treaty of 1806, Lords 

 Holland and Auckland, at p. 61 of the British Appendix. In the 

 second paragraph of their report to the British Foreign Office of the 

 14th November, 1806, they condense a statement of the law and the 

 existing conditions in the world at that time most admirably. Let 

 me read the first two paragraphs, for they both are apposite. They 

 say: 



" My Lord, 



" In elucidation of the subject of our public despatch we beg leave 

 to lay before you the following observations on the nature of the 

 extension of jurisdiction suggested by the American Commissioners, 

 on the real value of such a concession compared with that which they 

 seem to set upon it as well as the reasons which in our opinion induce 



them to urge it so strenuously. 

 1301 " The distance of a cannon shot from shore is as far as we 



have been able to ascertain the general limit of maritime juris- 

 diction and that distance is for the sake of convenience practically 

 construed into three miles or a league. All independent nations 

 possess such jurisdiction on their coasts; and the right to it is not 

 only generally contained in the acknowledgement of the independence 

 of the United States, but seems to have been specifically alluded to in 

 the 25th article of the treaty of 1794. Particular circumstances re- 

 sulting from immemorial usage, geographical position or stipulations 

 of treaty have sometimes led to an extension or jurisdiction, and may 

 therefore when applicable, be urged as a justification of such a pre- 

 tension." 



That is the precise situation in which Great Britain and the United 

 States stood. 



THE PRESIDENT: Does this passage refer to bays, or does it refer 

 only to an extension of the distance on the open coast ? 



SENATOR ROOT: I shall show you, Sir, that it refers to bays. It 

 refers to any extension beyond the Simile limit 



THE PRESIDENT: The fourth paragraph in this despatch begins 

 with the words " the space between headlands is more generally laid 

 down, and admitted by Grotius himself, as subject to the exclusive 

 jurisdiction of the power to whom the land belongs." That is in 

 the fourth paragraph of the same despatch. 



SENATOR ROOT : Yes. They go on to discuss the proposition of the 

 Americans, which related to the subject of bays. I will take that up. 

 I intend to return to this letter in a few minutes. 



