2288 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



and as recognised by both sides, in the same light. He says, 

 " seventy-eight witnesses, in all, have been examined, and 280 

 affidavits filed on the United States' side ; and, as was the case on the 

 British side, the main part of it has been directed to the mackerel 

 fishery, with regard to which the United States' counsel have sought 

 to establish the following salient points : 



"1. That the fishing grounds principally resorted to by the United States' 

 fishermen in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are on the banks situated outside the 

 3-mile limit, and at the Magdalene Islands, to which they had access previous 

 to the conclusion of the Treaty of Washington. 



"2. That the fishing business is at the best an unprofitable one, as regards 

 its net results to the owners or charterers of vessels. A mass of statistics has 

 been put in evidence with a view to prove this assertion, and to show that the 

 Canadian inshore fisheries can hardly be pursued by the United States' citizens 

 except at a loss; while those on their own shore yield a greater prospect of 

 remunerative results. 



"3. That the remission of duties on Canadian fish is a great benefit to the 

 producer, inasmuch as the chief market for mackerel is the United States." 



1383 In the same despatch Mr. Ford, in certain observations of 

 his own upon the countervailing force of the proofs of the 

 United States, as a whole, against the British proofs as a whole, 

 shows that the valuation of the inshore mackerel fishery of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, opened to our fishermen, was the whole matter of 

 contention before the commission in respect of the concession of 

 article 18 of the treaty. He remarks, " I may, however, observe that, 

 as it has never been denied, even by the British side, that a certain 



gortion of the mackerel taken by the United States in the Gulf of 

 t. Lawrence is caught outside the 3-mile limit, there could be no 

 difficulty in producing a considerable number of fishermen who 

 would truthfully depose that the majority of their successful trips 

 had been made outside the limit of British territorial jurisdiction. 

 The main fact, however, remains practically intact, viz., that with- 

 out access to the inshores it would be impossible for the general 

 business of mackerel fishing by United States' vessels in the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence, to be pursued with profitable results." 



It seems to this Government quite certain, then, that upon a correct 

 exposition of the submission of the treaty, and the concurring action 

 of the two Governments in the production and application of what 

 they deemed appropriate proofs, what the pecuniary value of our 

 participation in the inshore mackerel fishery of the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence was fairly estimated at, constituted the extreme limit of 

 any possible pecuniary award by the Halifax Commission against 

 the United States. If, upon any rational view of the criteria of this 

 value before the commission, the award of the two concurring Com- 

 missioners, of 5,500,000 dollars as a twelve years' purchase of the 

 privilege can be maintained, it may be fairly conceded that the 

 imputation of invalidity to the award for transcending the submis- 

 sion of the treaty will fail of adequate demonstration. If, on the 

 other hand, the candid exploration of the evidence shall show that 

 there exists no rational proportion between this award and the un- 

 questionable limits of value which any view of the testimony must 

 assign to the subject submitted for valuation by the treaty, as cor- 

 rectly interpreted, then by the very statement of the proposition it 

 is demonstrated that the concurring Commissioners have passed 

 their judgment of valuation upon some other subject than that defined 



