INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS. 243 



waters. But it was never ratified by the French Legis- 

 lature, so that in French waters the old Convention of 

 1 843 is still in force ; and French fishermen cannot be 

 proceeded against except under that Convention for 

 offences against the fishery police of our coasts. 1 



Under the Act of 1868 all British fishing boats have 

 to be lettered, numbered, and registered. The letters 

 indicate a port or station having a separate collectorship 

 of customs, and every station has its own set of numbers. 

 The details are worked out by an Order in Council of 

 June 1 8, 1869. By supplementary regulations of February 

 26, 1880, open boats not going out beyond the three-mile 

 limit are exempt. Naval and revenue officers and the 

 coastguard have by the Act and Orders in Council large 

 powers of search and seizure, and the fines for not having 

 the name, number, &c., duly painted on a boat may 

 amount to 20. 



The Convention lays down a number of rules (which it is 

 impossible to abridge) as to fishing-vessels carrying lights, 2 

 not interfering with one another's operations, and abstaining, 

 except in certain cases of necessity, from entering the 

 French fishery limits. 



In 1 88 1-2 an International Conference was held at the 

 Hague to discuss proposals for establishing a joint fishery 

 police in the North Sea. The result was a Convention 

 signed on May 6, 1882, by the delegates of England, 



1 See 40 &4i Viet. c. 42, s. 15. 



2 The rule as to lights was made more specific in 1879 by an Order 

 in Council (Regulations for preventing Collisions at Sea) under the 

 Merchant Shipping Acts. Since September i, 1881, till which date 

 the operation of the Order was afterwards suspended, fishing-vessels 

 out with drift-nets ought to carry two red lights on the mast, and 

 trawlers a red and a green light. I doubt whether the rule is much 



observed in practice. 



R 2 



