2192 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



dix at p. 154. Mr. Crampton is reporting that interview to the Earl 

 of Malmesbury, and in that letter the Tribunal will see that Mr. Fill- 

 more distinctly stated what his view was. In the last paragraph on 

 p. 155, Mr. Fillmore said to Mr. Crampton : 



" What he would propose was that Mr. Webster and myself should 

 make some temporary arrangement of the matter until the true sense 

 of the treaty should be determined by the two governments between 

 themselves, or, if necessary, be referred to the decision of some 

 friendly power." 



And in the paragraph before, he stated his view; he said: 



" We had been examining the Convention of 1818, he said, and 

 although he contested the construction put by the British Law Officers 

 upon the clause regarding the limits assigned, within which American 

 fishermen could not legally carry on their operations, he nevertheless 

 admitted that the wording of the passage, which he thought some- 

 what obscure, countenanced to a certain degree that construction. 

 With regard to the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown 

 1325 by which this construction was maintained, he remarked, how- 

 ever, that it seemed to him singular that they adverted to ex- 

 pressions as being used in the Treaty which were nowhere to be found 

 in it : he alluded to that part of the opinion where it is said, ' as we 

 are of opinion that the term headland is used in the Treaty to ex- 

 press the part of the land we have before mentioned including the 

 interior of the bays and indents of the coast.' Xow, said Mr. Fill- 

 more, there is no such term as headland in the Treaty at all, which 

 would look as if the opinion had been drawn up without reference 

 being made to the text of the Convention of 1818. He also remarked 

 that as well as he had been able to ascertain the fact, the Government 

 of the United States had, on various previous occasions, contested the 

 construction maintained by the opinion in question." 



And the interview closed by his saying : 



" while the United States Government, on the other hand, should take 

 every means in their power to prevent their own citizens from fishing 

 within the prescribed distance as understood by the British con- 

 struction, until such time as the question as to which construction 

 ought to prevail, should be determined on, or until the question 

 should be otherwise disposed of by treaty or mutual legislation." 



And on the same day, in Mr. Fillmore's letter to Mr. Webster, not 

 criticising him, or finding any fault with what Mr. Webster had done, 

 but in the most kindly and respectful way, he suggests to him that he 

 and Mr. Crampton should concur in a statement as to the position of 

 both countries upon this question ; and here is the way in which Mr. 

 Fillmore wished it stated: 



" but as for those waters in the several bays and harbours which are 

 more than three marine miles from the shore of such hay or harbour 

 upon either side, and within three marine miles of a straight line 

 drawn from one headland to the other of such bay or harbour, thar 

 you as the Representative of the United States conceived that our 



