PERIOD FKOM 1888 TO 1909. 235 



strictly speaking can have no rights or duties, whenever the term is 

 used, it is but a convenient or customary form of describing the ownei-s' 

 or masters' rights. As the Ne^\•foundiand fishery, however, is essen- 

 tially a ship fishery, they consider that it is probably quite unim- 

 portant which form of expression is used. 



By way of quahfication Mr. Root goes on to say that if it is intended 

 to assert that the British Government is entitled to claim that, when 

 an American goes with his vessel upon the Treaty Coast for the pur- 

 pose of fishing, or wdth his vessel enters the bays or harbours of the 

 coast for the pui-pose of obtaining shelter, and of repairing damages 

 therein, or of purchasing wood, or of obtaining water, he is bound to 

 furnish evidence that all the members of the crew are inliabitants of 

 the United States, he is obliged entirely to dissent from any such 

 proposition. 



The views of His Majesty's Government are quite clear upon this 

 point. The Convention of 1818 laid doA\Ti that the inhabitants of 

 the United States should have for ever in common with the subjects 

 of His Britannic Majesty the liberty to take fish of every kind on the 

 coasts of Ne\\'foundland ^^^thin the limits which it proceeds to define. 



This right is not given to American vessels, and the distinction is an 

 important one from the point of view of His Majesty's Government, 

 as it is upon the actual words of the Convention that they base their 

 claim to denj^- any right under the Treaty to American masters to 

 employ other than American fishermen for the taking of fish in New- 

 foundland Treaty w^aters. 



Mr. Root's language, however, appears to imply that the condition 

 which His Majesty's Government seeK to impose on the right of fishing 

 is a condition upon the entry of an American vessel into the Treaty 

 waters for the purpose of fishing. This is not the case. His ^lajestj^^'s 

 Government do not contend that every person on board an American 

 vessel fishing in the Treaty waters must be an inhabitant of the 

 United States, but merely that no such person is entitled to take fish 

 unless he is an inhabitant of the United States. This appears to meet 

 Mr. Root's argument that the contention of His Majestj^'s Govern- 

 ment involves as a corollaiy that no Ajiierican vessel would be entitled 

 to enter the waters of British North America (in which inhabitants 

 of the United States are debarred from fishing by the Convention of 

 1818) for anj^ of the four specified purposes, unless all the members 

 of the crew are inhabitants of the United States. 



Whatever may be the correct interpretation of the Treat}' as to 

 the employment of foreigners generally on board Ameiican vessels, 

 His Majesty's Government do not suppose that the United States 

 Government lay claim to \\'itlidraw Newfoundlanders from the 

 jurisdiction of their own Government so as to entitle them to fish 

 m the employment of iVmericans in violation of Newfoundland laws. 

 The United States Government do not, His Majesty's Government 

 understand, put their claim higher than that of a "common" fisheiy, 

 and such an arrangement carmot override the power of the Colonial 

 Legislature to enact laws binding on the inhabitants of the Colony. 



It can hardly be contended that Plis Majesty's Government have 

 lost their jurisdiction not only over American fishermen fishing in 



