QUESTION ONE. 63 



Presumptions of good faith and fair dealing 1 can not be admitted to 

 impair the enjoyment of rights either in international or municipal 

 law. Moreover, there is no such presumption in international law. 

 That law imposes on nations the utmost good faith, but it does not 

 presume it. Presumptions have their foundation in the general 

 observation of mankind that one fact follows another as a reason- 

 able sequence. But the history of nations is far from showing that 

 good faith in its observance always, or even generally, follows the 

 assumption by a nation of international obligations. 



An examination of the evidence in this case, it is believed, will 

 show that the colonies, to which Great Britain has largely remitted 

 the performance of her international obligations under the treaty of 

 1818, have not acted conformably to any such presumption. Under 

 the stimulus of competition with the United States in the fisheries 

 and to hamper and impede the latter, and to favor special localities, 

 they have enacted laws and made regulations limiting the time and 

 manner of fishing which are not necessary to the preservation of the 

 fisheries and which are not fair and equitable as between the fisher- 

 men of the two countries. They have also made laws and regulations 

 directed confessedly at the American fishing right, and with a view 

 of making its enjoyment difficult, if not impossible. 



The United States calls the attention of the Tribunal in this con- 

 nection to the Newfoundland Foreign Fishing Vessels Acts of 1905 and 

 1906, a and to the diplomatic correspondence conducted by Mr. Root 

 and Sir Edward Grey concerning the same, 6 and to various other 

 cognate matters for the purpose of showing that this legislation was 

 conceived with the view of depriving American fishermen of their 

 treaty rights in Newfoundland waters, and that it would be effective 

 for that purpose if allowed to be enforced. The United States also 

 calls attention to the Consolidated Statutes of Newfoundland (1892)* 1 

 and particularly to sections 1, 4, & 5 of such statutes ; e also to the 

 regulations of the fisheries made by the Governor of Newfoundland 

 in Council, (1905)/ and particularly to sections 19 to 25, both in- 

 clusive, and 53 to 62, both inclusive,* and to pertinent evidence in 



TL S. Case, Appendix, pp. 197-201. 



6 U. S. Case, Appendix, 966, 968, 978, 985. 



C TJ. S. Case, Appendix, 116; U. S. Counter Case, Appendix, 446-448. 



* U. S. Case, Appendix, 175 et seq. 



U. S. Case, Appendix, 175-176. 



'U. S. Case, Appendix, 201 et seq. 



f\J. S. Case, Appendix, pp. 202, 205-208. 



