2226 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



And the same letter further said 



" far the greater part of the fleet now in northern waters consists 

 of registered vessels. The prohibition against fishing under an 

 American register substantially bars the fleet from fishing." 



To those representations the reply was received from the British 

 Ambassador, which appears in the American Counter-Case Appendix. 

 at p. 633, saying : 



" His excellency " 



The Governor of Newfoundland, 



" telegraphs that no Newfoundland officer is preventing American 

 vessels from fishing on the treaty coast, and that no distinction is 

 being drawn between registered vessels and licensed vessels. 



And Sir Edward Grey, treating of the same subject, said in a 

 memorandum, a rather formal and maturely prepared memorandum, 



transmitted by him on the 2nd February, 1906, to the Ameri- 

 1346 can Ambassador at London, some things about this treatment 



of American registered vessels, that is, American vessels which 

 are authorized by their own Government both to trade and fish. 

 The letter of Sir Edward Grey enclosing the memorandum is at 

 p. 971 of the American Appendix. The memorandum is found 

 beginning on p. 972, and on p. 974 of the memorandum occurs this 

 statement, in the last paragraph on that page : 



" It is admitted that the majority of the American vessels lately 

 engaged in the fishery on the western coast of the colony were 

 registered vessels, as opposed to licensed fishing-vessels, and as such 

 were at liberty both to trade and to fish." 



And at p. 976, the same memorandum says, in the next to the last 

 paragraph on that page: 



"The distinction between United States registration and the pos- 

 session of a United States fishing licence is, however, of some im- 

 portance, inasmuch as a vessel which, so far as the United States 

 Government are concerned, is at liberty both to trade and to fi-h 

 naturally calls for a greater measure of supervision by the Colonial 

 Government than a vessel fitted out only for fishing and debarred 

 by the United States Government from trading: and information 

 has been furnished to His Maje-ty's Government by the Colonial 

 Government which shows that the proceedings of American fishing- 

 vessels in Newfoundland waters have in the past been of such a 

 character as to make it impossible from the point of view of the 

 protection of the Colonial revenue, to exempt such vessels from the 

 supervision authorized by the Colonial Customs Law." 



That was the occasion of no controversy whatever between the 

 Government of the United States and that of Great Britain. The 

 question of supervision is certainly one about which there could be 

 no controversy. If an American vessel seeks to trade with New- 

 foundland, whether she is a fishing-vessel or not, she must be sub- 



