2372 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



While so protesting the undersigned respectfully submits to the 

 Tribunal, that, until the questions stated in the special agreement 

 have been answered, it is inexpedient to discuss or even to raise the 

 matters which the paper of the 13th August seeks to present. 



Should the first question be answered in the sense of Great Brit- 

 ain's contention, attention may then be appropriately invited to 

 the objections suggested by the United States to existing 

 1430 fishery regulations, and consideration can then be given to the 

 question of the sufficiency of the " exposition " already made, 

 of the grounds upon which such objections are based. 



Should the Tribunal deem the " exposition " sufficient, or should it 

 permit the " exposition " to be amended or supplemented all neces- 

 sary directions will then no doubt be given to govern the course of 

 future proceedings by way of proofs and argument in respect of such 

 objections. 



It may well be that when this stage has been reached the Tribunal 

 will not find itself in need of any expert assistance. 



In any event nothing could be further from the intention of the 

 special agreement than that any Commission of experts should be 

 invested generally with the powers of the Tribunal itself, as the 

 paper in effect proposes. The 3rd article of the special agreement 

 is explicit as to this. It is only in case a question develops regarding 

 the reasonableness of any regulation, which requires an examination 

 of the practical effect of any provision, or expert information about 

 the fisheries, that anything whatever is to be referred to such a Com- 

 mission. Such a question as the 3rd article describes may or may 

 not arise; if and when the objections of the United States come to be 

 considered. Until it does, and until the Tribunal itself finds the 

 .appointment of such a Commission requisite, and in its judgment 

 expedient for its own assistance, it is idle for one of the parties to be 

 demanding such appointment. 



It must be obvious that the questions, if any, upon which the 

 Tribunal may require assistance should be ascertained and formulated 

 for reference before the men to compose such a Commission can be 

 intelligently chosen. It is equally obvious that the special agree- 

 ment does not contemplate a general reference en bloc to any such 

 Commission of any and all objections which the United States may 

 think it well to put forward. 



On behalf of Great Britain, the undersigned desires it to be under- 

 stood that, in his submission, the paper in question has no justification 

 in fact for any alleged possibility of " misunderstanding," arising 

 from or out of what are described as " informal conversations in 

 camera" It is, in the submission of the undersigned, a mistake to 

 use at all the word " informal " in this connection, and upon the 

 facts of what has taken place there can be no room to apprehend any 

 such " misunderstanding." 



A. B. AYLESWORTH, 

 Agent for Great Britain. 



AUGUST 19, 1910. 



