2298 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



wholly matters of determinate proof, an appraisement of the ships 

 and cargoes destroyed by the "Alabama" and her consorts, an <>ti- 

 mation of damages to persons or property suffered by individual 

 British subjects or American citizens for which reparation should be 

 made these were matters of definite affirmative proof in pounds or 

 dollars before any award could be asked, and were subject to correc- 

 tion by equally definite opposing proofs before any award could be 

 granted. Second, the assessments carried no measurement of any 

 still subsisting interests between the high contracting parties which 

 would survive the payment of the several awards. It was then quite 

 suitable to these references to accept the judgment of a majority and 

 dispense with the concurrence of both parties, as represented in the 

 commissions, in the results of the contentions before them. 



The matter submitted to the Halifax Commission was different in 

 nature, and in the relations of the high contracting parties to the sub- 

 ject of contention. Both these traits of this dispute conspired to 

 urge upon the high contracting parties the need of every possible 

 guaranty against unreasonable or illusory estimates on the part of 

 the commission to the prejudice of one party or the other. Besides, 

 this computation touched a matter in which large classes and in- 

 terests of either community felt a concern, and it was essential that 

 dissatisfaction with results should be alleviated by confidence in the 

 judgment. So vague a subject of valuation as the twelve years' 

 prospective catch of mackerel within 3 miles of the shore on the coasts 

 of the United States and of the provinces, so diffuse a problem as the 

 distribution of the burdens of duties between producer and consumer, 

 gave too large a range for floating speculations, unless anchored to 

 sober sense by the requirement of unanimity. The permanent im- 

 portance of these valuations in future negotiations of the two 

 countries, forbade their submission to any commission uncontrolled 

 by the necessary concurrence of the representatives of both countries, 

 in any award. The interests and feeling of the large populations, 

 on the one side and the other, dependent for prosperity, if not for 

 livelihood, on these fisheries, made the two Governments careful to 

 secure them, in any result, against a sense of injustice as well as of 

 disappointment, by the conservative requirement of unanimity. 



In submitting to Her Majesty's Government the failure of the 

 Commissioners to come to the agreement which, in this interpretation 

 of the treaty, is requisite to the validity of the award, the Govern- 

 ment wishes to lay no undue stress upon this objection. If Her 

 Majesty's Government concurs in this construction of the authority 

 conferred upon the Halifax Commission, this agreement between the 

 Governments will enable them, presently, to make more complete, 

 as well as more satisfactory, arrangements for the reciprocal interests 

 of the industry and commerce of the provinces and of the United 

 States than at present exist. If, on the other hand, Her Majesty's 

 Government shall announce to this Government their construction 

 of the treaty to be that the concurrence of a majority of the Com- 

 missioners warrants a valid award, notwithstanding the declared 

 dissent of the third Commissioner, this Government will not refuse 

 to accord to that opinion, thus expressed, all the weight which it 

 desires for its own views. You will therefore say to Lord Salisbury 

 that, upon such a declared disagreement upon the true interpretation 

 of the treaty in respect of unanimity of the Commissioners, this 



