220 SEA FISHERIES 



Five Ministers those of the Marine, Public Works, 

 the Interior, Finance, and Commerce have the decisive 

 word. Of all their needs, functions, and activities, only 

 one is provided with a budget and administration of its 

 own: the tools and implements necessary for upkeep 

 and repairs." This is incoherence raised to the dignity 

 of a principle : it is unity in diversity. I seem to 

 remember that "unity in diversity" was St. Thomas 

 Aquinas's definition of beauty I I am afraid the mean- 

 ing of the phrase has changed a trifle since the Middle 

 Ages. 



The English formula would appear to be diametri- 

 cally opposed to the French : diversity in unity. In 

 England the organisation of the fishing harbours is the 

 work of local councils or Harbour Boards, which, on 

 condition of submitting the plans of the works they wish 

 to carry out to the Board of Trade, receive grants in 

 proportion to the importance of these works, in the 

 general interests of the country. The greatest liberty 

 is left to the local bodies. The latter transmit their 

 demands to a district committee which corresponds 

 directly with the Board of Trade. There are twelve 

 districts. In Scotland the coast is divided into twenty- 

 nine districts, placed under the direction of the Fishery 

 Board of Scotland, which sends an annual report to the 

 Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, and may make 

 advances to the local bodies. The State grants are only 

 made to ports already prosperous and never exceed the 

 third part of the sum required, the remaining two-thirds 

 being furnished by local taxation. 1 The local board at 

 Grimsby is largely constituted of delegates of the Great 

 Central Railway Company, and the whole harbour is 

 really the property of the Company. It collects a due 

 1 Very small harbours are in the hands of the town councils. 



