452 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



staple article of food, has excited the earnest solicitude of 

 the governments of both Great Britain and the United 

 States. Each has necessarily sought to secure for its re- 

 spective subjects the greatest possible advantage in the 

 prosecution of so important an industry. 



These fishing operations on the part of Americans have 

 required in the past not only the occupancy of Canadian 

 waters, but equally the occupancy and use of Canadian 

 shores ; and as a quid pro quo for granting these privileges 

 British subjects have naturally demanded as large remunera- 

 tinns as they could reasonably obtain. On the other hand, 

 American fishermen have always desired, and sometimes 

 demanded as a national right, the privilege to follow their 

 game into British territorial waters, and the United States- 

 Government has always sought to obtain for them these 

 important privileges on terms least objectionable and oner- 

 ous to the nation at large. In pursuit of their voca- 

 tions, American and Canadian fishermen have necessarily 

 been brought side by side into direct personal contact,, 

 thus affording occasion for the breeding of jealousies and 

 bitter feelings of resentment for real and fancied wrongs. 

 It is not remarkable that collisions from time to time have 

 resulted, which have always served to complicate the settle- 

 ment of the public issues involved. 



It has been said that fishermen are the "wards of nations.'* 

 They enjoy certain special immunities in times of war, and 

 in niiiny respects they receive from their governments all the 

 fostering care and protection required at the hands of a guar- 

 dian. Formerly they were specially encouraged and protected 

 both by England and the United States, on the ground that 

 the character of their calling peculiarly fitted them for the 

 naval service. From this nautical school the hardiest and 

 best sailors have been drafted. In this connection it i& 

 interesting to note the fears of an English writer, expressed 

 as early as 1670, who viewed with alarm the growth of the 

 cod-fisheries in the New World. He wrote : " New England 

 is the most prejudicial plantation in this kingdom, ... of 

 all the American plantations, His Majesty has none so apt 



