630 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEA 



more than ten miles 1 would give room for safe fishing more 

 than three miles from either shore, and thus prevent the con- 

 stant disputes which this Government's proposal, following the 

 conventions above noticed, was designed to avert." 2 



Nevertheless, notwithstanding this proposal by the United 

 States' Government, the limit now enforced for bays on the 

 coasts of British North America is that of six miles, with the 

 exception of the Bay of Chaleurs. 3 It was apparently found 

 that the attitude adopted by the British Government in 1870, 

 then stated to be temporary and exceptional, of allowing the 

 United States' fishermen to fish " except within three miles of 

 land, or in bays which are less than six miles broad at the 

 mouth," ought to be adhered to, during the existence of the 

 modus vivendi and pending the ratification of the treaty of 

 1888. If a recent statement of the Under - Secretary for 

 Foreign Affairs, made in the House of Lords, represents the 

 policy of the British Government at the present day, this six- 

 mile limit for bays is to be regarded as established not alone 

 for British North America, but for every part of the British 

 dominions unless specially provided for otherwise. (See p. 730.) 



From the foregoing summary of the disputes, negotiations, 

 and treaties, concerning the rights of Americans to fish on the 

 coasts of the British possessions in North America, it is evident 

 that the British Government has gradually given way to the 

 pressure exerted by the United States. In allowing a six-mile 

 line for bays they have, indeed, as just shown, gone further 

 than was demanded, and have departed from the terms of the 

 fishery conventions which they have concluded with European 

 Powers. The basis of the delimitation adopted in the treaty 

 of 1888 was, as Mr Chamberlain intimated to Lord Salisbury, 

 derived from the North Sea Convention of 1882, to which im- 

 portant treaty we must now turn our attention. 



It has been already said that the fishery convention with 

 France in 1867 was not ratified by that country, and never 

 came into operation in the general police regulation of the 

 fisheries in extra-territorial waters. The desirability of inter- 



1 The three-mile limit is measured from the ten-mile arc. 



2 Mr Phelps to the Marquis of Salisbury, 3rd August 1887, enclosing ad interim 

 arrangement proposed by the United States' Government, with "Observations" by 

 the British Government and Reply of the Government of the United States. 



3 Gordon, 15th Ann. Rep. Assoc.for Reform of Law of Nations (8). 1893. 



