2158 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



aforesaid line of jurisdiction, the belligerent Power shall exercise the 

 same rights as if this article did not exist;" 



That covers the whole ground on the balance of interests exhibited 

 in the letters of the negotiators, Lords Holland and Auckland, as the 

 result of the resistance of Great Britain under all the circumstances 

 that existed at the time, to the urgency of the Americans. A- .: 

 result, they agreed upon the line of maritime jurisdiction which 

 is stated here, and that expressly excludes from the maritime juris- 

 diction of the two Powers the chambers between headlands. 



THE PRESIDENT: In the text of article 12 it is stated that this 

 disposition has been agreed upon "on account of the peculiar cir- 

 cumstances belonging to those coasts." 



SENATOR ROOT: Yes. 



THE PRESIDENT : Is it not possible that this passage " on account 

 of the peculiar circumstances belonging to the coasts " is evidence 

 that this is a specific provision concerning the open coast, and not 

 referring to the bays ? 



SENATOR ROOT: I could not think of any circumstances more pecu- 

 liar, as belonging to coasts, than the number, size, and character 

 of the bays which indent them. 



THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL : The shelving nature of the coast. 



THE PRESIDENT : In the letter from Lord Holland and Lord Auck- 

 land to Lord Howick, of the 14th November, 1806 (British Case 

 Appendix, p. 61) the fifth paragraph seems perhaps to have some 

 connection with article 12 : 



" The circumstance however on which the American commissioners 

 have chiefly relied is the shelving nature of their coast,- and though 

 from the east end of Long Island northwards it does not de.-i'r\v 

 such a description they allege that it is so broken with rocks as to 

 oblige coasting vessels to keep at a considerable distance from the 

 land." 



Could it not be said that in consequence of this mention here of 

 this shelving nature of the coast and of the reference to the peculiar 

 circumstances belonging to the coasts, this article 12 refers only to 

 the coast to the open coast, in contradistinction to the bays? 



SENATOR ROOT: But article 12 cannot refer only to the coasts, 

 because it in ipsissimis verbis fixes the maritime jurisdiction, and 

 maritime jurisdiction is an all-comprehensive term. Great Britain 

 cannot have any jurisdiction beyond i^, maritime jurisdiction. Of 

 course you cannot disassociate the shelving nature of the coasts from 

 the conformation of them, from the bays and from the islands which 

 are referred to here by Lords Holland and Auckland. 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK : Your theory is that " coasts " in article 

 12 includes bays and harbours: "peculiar circumstances belonging 

 to these coasts " would mean peculiar circumstances belonging to 

 these coasts, bays and harbours ? 



