684 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



men of the locality remonstrated against these proceedings, and, upon 

 their remonstrance proving unavailing, removed the nets by force. 

 Such being the facts, the following two questions arise : 



1. Have United States fishermen the right to use the strand for 

 purposes of actual fishing? 



2. Have they the right to take herrings with a seine at the season 

 of the year in question, or to use a seine at any season of the year for 

 the purpose of barring herrings on the coast of Newfoundland? 



The answers to the above questions depend on the interpretation of 

 the treaties. 



With regard to the first question, namely, the right to the strand 

 fishery, I would observe that article 1 of the convention between 

 Great Britain and the United States of the 20th of October, 1818, 

 secured to citizens of the United States the right, in common with 

 British subjects, to take fish of every kind on certain specified por- 

 tions of the cost of Newfoundland, and to use the shore for the 

 purposes of purchasing wood and obtaining water, and for no other 

 purpose whatever. 



Articles XVIII and XXXII of the Treaty of Washington super- 

 added to the above-mentioned privileges the right for United States 

 fishermen to take fish of every kind (with certain exceptions not rele- 

 vant to the present case) on all portions of the coast of that island, 

 and permission to land for the purpose of drying their nets and cur- 

 ing their fish, " provided that in so doing they do not interfere with 

 the rights of private property or with British fishermen in the peace- 

 able use of any part of the said coast in their occupancy for the same 

 purpose." 



Thus whilst absolute freedom in the matter of fishing in territorial 

 waters is granted, the right to use the shore for four specified pur- 

 poses alone is mentioned in the treaty articles, from which United 

 States fishermen derive their privileges, namely, to purchase wood, 

 to obtain water, to dry nets, and cure fish. 



The citizens of the United States are thus by clear implication 

 absolutely precluded from the use of the shore in the direct act of 

 catching fish. This view was maintained in the strongest manner 

 before the Halifax Commission by the United States agent, who, 

 with reference to the proper interpretation to be placed on the treaty 

 stipulations, used the following language : " No rights to dp anything 

 upon the land are conferred upon the citizens of the United States 

 ander this treaty, with the single exception of the right to dry nets 

 and cure fish on the shores of the Magdalen Islands, if we did not 

 possess that before. No right to land for the purpose of seining from 

 the shore ; no right to the ' strand fishery,' as it has been called ; no 

 right to do anything except, water-borne on our vessels, to go within 

 the limits which had been previously forbidden. 



" So far as the herring trade goes, we could not if we were disposed 

 to carry it on successfully under the provisions of the treaty, for this 

 herring trade is substantially a seining from the shore, a strand fish- 

 ing, as it is called, and we have no right anywhere conferred by this 

 treaty to go ashore and seine herring any more than we have to estab- 

 lish fishtraps." 



Her Majesty's Government, therefore, cannot anticipate that any 

 difference of opinion will be found to exist between the two govern- 

 ments on tliis point. 



