1892 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



the land on both sides must be within the dominion of the government claiming juris- 

 diction ; and then that the strait is not more than six miles wide ; but that if the strait 

 is more than six miles wide, no such jurisdiction can be claimed." 



Now, sir, this argument seems to me to prove too much. I think it would divest 

 the United States of the harbor of Boston, all the land around which belongs to Mass- 

 achusetts or the United States, while the mouth of the bay is six miles wide. It 

 would surrender our dominion over Long Island Sound a dominion which, I think, 

 the State of New York and the United States would not willingly give up. It would 

 surrender Delaware Bay ; it would surrender, I think, Albemarle Sound, and the Ches- 

 apeake Bay ; and I believe it would surrender the Bay of Monterey, and perhaps the 

 Bay of San Francisco on the Pacific coast. 



Senator Tuck, during the same debate, said : 



Perhaps I shall be thought to charge the Commissioners of 1818 with overlooking 

 our interests. They did so, in the important renunciation which I have quoted ; but 

 they are obnoxious to no complaints for so doing. In 1818, we took no mackerel on 

 the coasts of British possessions, and there was no reason to anticipate that we should 

 ever have occasion to do so. Mackerel were then found as abundantly on the coast of 

 New England as anywhere in the world, and it was not till years after that this 

 beautiful fish, in a great degree, left our waters. The mackerel fishery on the pro- 

 vincial coasts has principally grown up since 1838, and no vessel was ever licensed for 

 that business in the United States till 1828. The Commissioners iu 1818 had no other 

 business bat to protect the cod fishery, and this they did in a manner generally satis- 

 factory to those most interested. 



The document dated April 12, 1866, partially quoted at page 28 of 

 the United States brief, would convey a far different meaning if given 

 iu full. The Commissioners are desired to notice that the extract there 

 given is in the text immediately preceded by the following: 



Her Majesty's Government are clearly of opinion that, by the Convention of 1818, 

 the United States have renounced the right of fishing, not only within three miles of 

 the colonial shores, but within three miles of a line drawn across the mouth of any 

 British bay or creek. But the question, what is a British bay or creek, is one which 

 has been the occasion of difficulty in former times. 



It is therefore, at present, the wish of Her Majesty's Government neither to concede, 

 nor, for Ike present, to enforce any rights in this respect which are in their nature open 

 to any serious question. 



It must be remembered that at the date of this document the Ameri- 

 can fishermen were passing from the free use of all Canadian fisheries 

 granted by the Reciprocity Treaty to the limitations of the Convention 

 of 1818, and Her Majesty's Government, through friendly feelings, de- 

 sired to give American fishermen some time to return quietly to the sys- 

 tem created by the Convention of 1818. 



With regard to the memorandum quoted at p. 32 of the brief, Her 

 Majesty's Government are not aware that any such memorandum was 

 communicated by them to the Government of the United States, and 

 the United States Agent is challenged to produce any record of such 

 communication having been officially made to the United States Gov- 

 ernment by the British representative at Washington. 



As a matter of fact, a private memorandum iu such terms was sent' 

 to Her Majesty's representative at Washington, but accompanied by 



rtiuct instructions not to bring it under the consideration of the 

 Government of the United States at the time. 



The matter with reference to which it was written was a project for 

 the appointment of a joint commission which might serve to remove 

 occasion for future misunderstanding. 



The quotation given in the brief is as follows: 



The right of Great Britain to exclude American fishermen from waters within three 



the coast is unambiguous, and, it is believed, uncontested. But there appears 



ome doubt what are the waters described as within three miles of bays, creeks, 



harbors. \\ here a bay is less than six miles broad, its waters are within the three- 



:nt, and, therefore, clearly within the meaning of the treaty; but when it is 



