66 THE ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



REGULATIONS REFERABLE TO PUBLIC ORDER. 



It is admitted that Great Britain has a special and peculiar interest 

 in the preservation of order on the fishing grounds, and so far as 

 British, or colonial laws and regulations designed to that end do not 

 affect the exercise of the American fishing right, the United States 

 would have no occasion to complain of their enforcement. American 

 fishermen, when within the British territory, must not commit crimes 

 nor breaches of the peace, and if they do either they may be punished 

 by British law. It is presumed, however, that regulations referable 

 to public order, within the contention of Great Britain as stated in 

 Question One, mean the establishment of a general method or order 

 of fishing as between the fishermen, such as, for instance, regulations 

 giving priority to the first comer, forbidding the placing or casting 

 of nets and seines over those already cast, providing rules for separat- 

 ing seines and nets which become entangled, and similar regulations. 

 While regulations of this character may have a tendency to preserve 

 order among the fishermen, yet, since they affect the exercise of the 

 fishing right and might be so framed or so administered as to inter- 

 fere with its fair enjoyment, the United States can not admit the 

 right of Great Britain to make such regulations applicable to Ameri- 

 can fishermen without the consent of the United States. 



Publicists of repute have said that regulations of even this limited 

 character must be made by treaty between the dominant and servient 

 states ; a and it is to be noted that the treaty of 1904 between Great 

 Britain and France, in which the claim of an exclusive right of 

 fishery on the part of France on the Newfoundland coast was re- 

 nounced, and a right retained for her citizens to fish on a footing 

 of equality with British subjects, conformed to this rule of inter- 

 national law by providing that 



The policing of the fishing on the above-mentioned portion of the 

 coast, and for prevention of illicit liquor traffic and smuggling of 

 spirits, shall form the subject of regulations drawn up in agreement 

 by the two Governments.* 



Regulations which do not actually affect the fishing right in the 

 matter of the time and manner of fishing are conceded to be within 

 the province of British jurisdiction. While such regulations may to 

 some extent impair the faculty of fishing, it is only in the same way 

 and on the same principle, that the arrest and detention of the person 



Ullmann, sec. 99 ; Clauss, p. 224. 6 U. S. Case, Appendix, 85. 



