PEEIOD FROM 1888 TO 1909. 245 



cussions between the two Governments wdth respect to the interpreta- 

 tion of this treaty, which discussions, as shown by the foregoing re- 

 view of this controversy, would seem to have covered every conceiv- 

 able aspect of the case, and although the United States has always 

 asserted the right of the American fishermen to take fish in the waters 

 referred to, and American fishermen have ever since the treaty 

 was made, openly exercised their right to take fish in these waters 

 without objection or interference by the Newfoundland Govern- 

 ment up to the present time, yet it appears that in 1907, when the 

 arbitration of the fisheries controversy was under consideration 

 between the Newfoundland and British Governments, the Govern- 

 ment of Newfoundland proposed for the treaty a new interpretation 

 which raises this question, and insisted that it should be included 

 among the questions to be submitted for decision.*^ This question 

 was first suggested by Sir Robert Bond, the premier of Newfoundland, 

 in his speech delivered April 7, 1905, in the Legislative Assembly on 

 the second reading of the Foreign Fishing-vessels Bill of 1905, from 

 which speech the following extract is taken: 



T desire to emphasize the statement that, in my opinion, the fish- 

 ermen of the United States of America have no right, under the 

 Treaty of 1818, either to take for themselves or to purchase bait fishes 

 in the harbours, creeks, or coves between Cape Ray and Rameau 

 Islands, on the southern coast of Newfoundland, or in the harbours, 

 creeks, or coves between Cape Ray and Quirpon Islands, on the 

 northern and western coast; and that the hberty extended to them 

 under the Treaty of 1818 to take fish in the harbours, ba3^s, and 

 creeks of this Colony is limited to that portion of our dependency 

 from Mount Joli, on the southern coast of Labrador, to and through 

 the Straits of Belle Isle, and thence northwardly indefinitely. This 

 is a point of vast importance to the people of this country. I beheve 

 I am correct in saying that it is the first time that this position has 

 been taken, and, if I am correct in my interpretation of the Treaty 

 of 1818, the whole winter herring fishery of the West Coast has been 

 carried on for years by the Americans simply at the sufference of the 

 Government of this Colony.'' 



This question was not called to the attention of the United 

 States Government at that time, and no official notice of it was 

 ever given to this Government until the negotiations for the Special 

 Agreement, under which this arbitration is held, were actually under- 

 taken, when this question, which afterwards became Question 6 of 



a Appendix, p. 1013. 



b British Blue Book, United States, No. 1 (1906), p. 54. 



