QUESTION ONE. 67 



of a fisherman for larceny or for an assault and battery and other like 

 breaches of the local law, impair such faculty. Of this character are 

 laws or regulations against the casting of stones or ballast, the offal 

 of fish and other deleterious matter into the waters of harbors. Since 

 such regulations are chiefly of local concern and do not limit and im- 

 pair the American fishing right, obedience to them, by American 

 fishermen, may properly be asked by Great Britain. 



It should be repeated in this connection that a decision of this Tri- 

 bunal against the contention of Great Britain does not mean that the 

 fisheries are to go unregulated or unprotected. The United States is 

 as desirous as Great Britain of maintaining the productiveness of the 

 fisheries, in which it has a joint and equal right, and will always be 

 ready, as it has been in the past, to join in making appropriate regu- 

 lations which are equitable and fair between the fishermen of the two 

 nations, if any are found to be necessary. 



REGULATIONS REFERABLE TO PUBLIC MORALS. 



With reference to regulations desirable on grounds of public 

 morals, the United States does not controvert the right of Great 

 Britain to make laws in the interest of public morals, but, with one 

 possible exception, there does not seem to be any relation whatever 

 between public morals and regulations governing the hours, days, 

 or seasons when fish may be taken or the method, means, and imple- 

 ments used in the taking of fish. It may be that a prohibition against 

 fishing on Sunday would come within the category of a regulation 

 desirable on the ground of public morals. No other regulation, how- 

 ever, now in force or ever in force on the treaty coasts, relating to the 

 time or manner of fishing, has any relation to public morals, and it is 

 difficult to imagine any other possible regulation of that character 

 which could have such relation. It may fairly be assumed then, that 

 in so far as the British contention in this Question predicates any 

 regulations on public morals, the regulations contemplated were those 

 prohibiting fishing in territorial waters on Sunday. 



Sunday observance, it may be admitted, is an important matter, 

 but the civilized countries of the world hold widely divergent views 

 concerning the proper regulation thereof, and it seems rather a 

 strained application of any principle on which Sunday laws are 

 founded, to direct them against fishing in the maritime belt. There 



