FINAL REPORT OF THE AGENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Washington, November H^ 1910. 



The undersigned, agent of the United States in the North Atlantic 

 Coast Fisheries Arbitration recently held at The Hague, has the honor 

 to submit his report as follows : 



The general arbitration treaty of April 4, 1908, between the United 

 States and Great Britain requires that in each case submitted to 

 arbitration thereunder the parties shall conclude a special agreement 

 defining clearly the matter in dispute, the scope and power of the 

 arbitrators, and the periods to be fixed for the formation of the 

 arbitration tribunal and the several stages of procedure. 



In this case, such a special agreement was signed on the 27th day 

 of January, 1909, confirmed by the Senate on the 18th of February 

 following, and formally ratified by both Governments on the 4th of 

 March, 1909. In compliance with the requirements of the general 

 treaty of arbitration, the special agreement sets out, first, a series of 

 seven questions to be answered by the tribunal relating to the inter- 

 pretation of the true intent and meaning of Article I of the treaty of 

 October 20, 1818, between the United States and Great Britain ; and 

 it provides that the tribunal of arbitration shall be chosen in accord- 

 ance with the provisions of Article XLV of The Hague Convention of 

 October 18, 1907, for the pacific settlement of international disputes ; 

 and provides further that when not inconsistent with any particular 

 provision of the special agreement, the provisions of that convention 

 shall govern the proceedings in the case. The special agreement also 

 contains a series of provisions covering the presentation of the ease 

 and the procedure before the tribunal. 



The article of The Hague Convention, in accordance with which 

 the members of the tribunal were required to be chosen, provides 

 that the tribunal shall be composed of five members selected from 

 the list of the members of the Permanent Court at The Hague, and 

 that their selection shall be made by direct agreement of the parties 

 if possible, and in case of failure to agree other methods of selection 

 are provided for. In this case, a direct agreement was reached, and 

 the members of the tribunal selected were as follows ; 



Dr. H. Lammaseh, doctor of law, professor of the University of 

 Vienna, Aulic Councilor, Member of the Upper House of the Aus- 

 trian Parliament; 



