AWARD OP THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1539 



III. 



At the conference held on the 5th of September, 1877. 



Mr. Foster. I will read the motion that was presented on the 1st 



instant : 



The Counsel and Agent of the United States ask the honorable Commissioner-' to 

 rule de -luring that it is not competent for this Commission to award any compensa- 

 tion for commercial inter -ourse between the two countries, and that the advantages 

 result ing from the practice of purchasing bait, ice, supplies, &c., and from being 

 allowed to transship cargoes in British waters, do not constitute a foundation for award 

 of compensation, and shall be wholly excluded from the consideration of this tribunal. 



The object, may it please the Commission, of this motion is to obtain, 

 if it be possible, and place on record, a decision declaring the limits of 

 your jurisdiction, and thus to eliminate from the investigation matters 

 which we believe to be immaterial and beyond the scope of the powers 

 conferred upon you. The twenty second Article of the Treaty of Wash- 

 ington is the charter under which we are acting, and this provides that 



Inasmuch as it is asserted by the Government of Her Britannic Majesty that the 

 privileges accorded to the citizens of the United States under Article XVIII of this 

 treaty, are of greater value than those accorded by Articles XIX and XXI of this 

 treaty to the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, and this assertion is not admitted by 

 the Government of tho United States, it is further agreed that Commissioners shall be 

 appointed to determine, having regard to the privileges accorded by the United States 

 to the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, as stated in Articles XIX and XXI of this 

 treaty, the amount of any compensation which, in their opinion, ought to be paid' by 

 the Government of the United States to the, Government of Her Briiaunic Majesty in 

 return for the privileges accorded to the citizens of the United States under Article 

 XVIII of this treaty. 



The subject of our investigation, then, is the amount of any compensa- 

 tion which ought to be paid by the United States to Her Majesty in re- 

 turn for the privileges accorded to the citizens of the United States, 

 nnder Article 18 of the treaty, and that is all. The other articles 

 referred to in this section, Articles 19 and 21, are set-offs or equivalents, 

 received by Her Majesty's subjects for the concession made by Her 

 Majesty's Government to United States citizens nnder Article 18. When 

 we turn to Article 18 we find that the High Contracting Parties agreed 

 as follows : 



'it is agreed by the High Contracting Parties that, in addition to the liberty secured 

 to the United States fishermen by the Convention between Great Britain and the 

 United States, signed at London on the 20th day of October, 1818, of taking, curing, 

 and drying fish on certain coasts of the British Xorth Americau Colonies therein 

 defined, the inhabitants of the United States shall have, in common with the snbjec's 

 of Her Britannic M^je-ty, the liberty for the term of years mentioned in Article XXXIII 

 of this treaty to take fish of every kind, except shell-fish, on the sea coasts and shores, 

 and in the bays, harbors, and creeks of the Provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New 

 Brunswick, and the colony of Prince Edward Island, and of the several islands there- 

 unto adjacent, without being restricted to any distance from the shore, with permis- 

 sion to land npon the said coasts and shores and islands, and also upon the Magdalen 

 Islands, for the purpose of drying their nets and curing their fish ; provided that, in 

 so doing, they do not interfere with the rights of private property, or with British fish- 

 ermen, in the peaceable use of any part of the taid coasts in their occupancy for the 

 said purpose. It is understood that the above-mentioned liberty applies solely to the 

 sea-fishery, and that the salmon and shad fisheries, and all other fisheries in rivers and 

 the months of rivers, are hereby reserved exclusively for British fishermen. 



The concession made to the citizens of the United States is the light 

 to fish inshore without being excluded three miles from the shore, as 

 they were excluded by the renunciation contained in the Treaty of 1818. 

 It gives the further right to land on the coasts and shores and islands 

 for the purpose of drying nets and curing fish, provided that in so doing 

 they do not interfere with the rights of private property for British 



