1906 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



are the rules as to dimensions and configurations which, apart from other considera- 

 tions, would lead to the conclusion that a bay is or is not a part of the territory of 

 the state possessing the adjoining coasts; and it has never, that they can find, been 

 made the ground of any judicial determination. If it were necessary in this case to 

 lay down a rule, the difficulty of the task would not deter their lordships from at- 

 temptiug to fulfill it. But in their opinion it is not necessary so to do. It seems 

 to them that, in point of fact, the British Government has for a long period exercised 

 dominion over this bay, and that their claim has been acquiesced in by other nations, 

 so as to show that the bay has been for a long time occupied exclusively by Great 

 Britain, a circumstance which in the tribunals of any country would be very impor- 

 tant. And, moreover (which in a British tribunal is conclusive), the British legisla- 

 ture has by acts of Parliament declared it to be part of the British territory, and part 

 of the count.ry made subject to the legislature of Newfoundland. 



To establish this proposition it is not necessary to go further back than to the 59 

 Geo. Ill, c. 38, passed in 1819, now nearly sixty years ago. 



There was a convention made in 1818 between the United States and Great Britain 

 relating to the fisheries of Labrador, Newfoundland, and His Majesty's other possess- 

 ions in North America, by which it was agreed that the fishermen of the United States 

 should have the right to fish on part of the coasts (not including the part of the island 

 of Newfoundland on which Conception Bay lies), and should not enter any " bays" ia 

 any part of the coast except for the purposes of shelter and repairing damages, and 

 purchasing wood, and obtaining water, and no other purposes whatever. It seems 

 impossible to doubt that this convention applied to all bays, whether large or small, 

 on that coast, and consequently to Conception Bay. It is true that the convention 

 would only bind the two nations who were parties to it, and, consequently, that though 

 a strong assertion of ownership on the part of Great Britain acquiesced in by so power- 

 ful a state as the United States, the convention though weighty is not decisive. 



The meaning of the word " bay " being settled, what therefore did 

 the United States renounce when they renounced the right to take fish 

 within three marine miles of any of the coasts, bays, harbors, and 

 creeks? 



It is admitted they could not take fish within three marine miles of 

 the coast. It has been shown that they could not fish in the bay. Some 

 right or privileges outside the bay is therefore renounced. But how far 

 outside? The distance is expressly given three marine miles. 



But from what point is this distance to be measured. Not from the 

 shore or coast, for that construction would render the word "bay" sup- 

 erfluous. If any place within the bay had been intended the treaty 

 would have said so. The entrance of the bay must therefore be the 

 point whence the three miles are to be measured. The entrance is 

 denned by the line drawn from headland to headland, and the three 

 miles must be measured seawards from that line which defines and 

 marks the sea limit of the bays, as a corresponding three miles are to be 

 measured from the line or boundary of the shore. 



This restriction not to fish within three marine miles of any bay, is of 

 importance in considering the whole argument of the United States. 



The restrictions are, fishing in and within three miles of any bay. 

 They are quite distinct in sense and wording. That the United States 

 fishermen might not enter any bay for the purpose of fishing, is made 

 quite distinct by the permission given to enter such bays for other 

 specified purposes; and when the further restriction is added that they 

 aro not to take fish within three marine miles of any bay, the conclusion 

 is inevitable that by the Convention of 1818 the United States fisher- 

 men were excluded from fishing within three marine miles of the 

 entrance of or Hue drawn across from the headlands which form the bay. 



