1706 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Substantially, no defense has been offered on behalf of the United States 

 which materially affects the issue. Is there a substantial claim of Great 

 Britain or not? It seems generally admitted that there is a right to 

 receive something, and the question for you now to decide is not as to 

 whether any sum is to be awarded to Great Britain, but simply as to 

 the amount at which her claim should be assessed. 



I now propose to discuss briefly the main issues involved, namely : 

 the advantages derived, respectively, by each of the High Contracting 

 Parties, under the Treaty of Washington ; and the arguments which I 

 desire to advance in support of the claim of Her Majesty's Government, 

 I may here observe, will be confined entirely to that branch of the in- 

 quiry* which has reference to Newfoundland ; and I shall limit my obser- 

 vations to a consideration of such facts as have a direct practical bear- 

 ing on the substantial advantages for which compensation is claimed. 

 It has not been assigned to me to treat in any manner of the historic or 

 diplomatic features of the case; these subjects, as far as it may appear 

 requisite, will be, I do not doubt, ably and powerfully dealt with by my 

 learned friends who will follow me on the British side. 



It would be an unwarranted occupation of the time of this Commis- 

 sion for me now to revert to that interlocutory judgment which was de- 

 livered on the 6th of September last, by which it was decided that "it 

 is not within the competence of this tribunal to award compensation for 

 commercial intercourse between the two countries, nor for the purchas- 

 ing bait, ice, supplies, &c., nor for the permission to transship cargoes in 

 British waters." I may safely leave it to the consideration of your excel- 

 lency and your honors, to what extent this decision shall weigh with 

 you in arriving at the award which will be given by you. Narrowed and 

 limited, however, as the subject of this investigation now is, as com- 

 pared with what we supposed it would be at the outset, I must confess 

 that I was not prepared for the summary disposal by my learned friend, 

 Mr. Foster, of the claim made on behalf of Newfoundland. As I un- 

 derstand, in his speech, he asserts that that claim is presented, not for 

 the privilege of fishing in the territorial waters of that island, but for 

 the privilege of enjoying commercial intercourse with the people; and 

 that the latter has been eliminated from this controversy by the decision 

 of the Gth September. Further, he says, that there has been no fishing 

 done by the United States citizens in the waters of Newfoundland, ex- 

 cept the catching of a small quantity of halibut and the jigging of a few 

 squid after dark. Were such in reality the nature of the claim, it would 

 be difficult to conceive how such could be seriously preferred in an inter- 

 national inquiry of such importance. But surely my learned friend 

 must have neglected to peruse the case presented, and to attend to 

 the evidence adduced in support of it (which I cannot conceive him to 

 have done) or he must have felt his inability to meet it with direct facts 

 or arguments, and deemed it a wiser course to keen it conveniently in 

 the background by dismissing it with a few depreciatory remarks. Much 

 testimony is, however, before you, proving that United States citizens 

 have prosecuted what are to them most valuable fisheries in the inshore 

 waters of Newfoundland, to which evidence I shall presently draw your 

 attention ; but even supposing there had been up to the present time no 



ich fishing, I cannot conceive, nor do I believe you will be of opinion, 

 that Article XXI I of the treaty will admit of the construction that a claim 

 lor compensation should be ignored for a privilege conferred upon the 



lited States for a term of years, even if that privilege had not been 



availed of for a portion of the time. It does not follow but that, imme- 



Jiately your award is given, the privilege would be exercised to the 



