QUESTION THREE. 101 



THE INTENTION OF THE NEGOTIATORS. 



That the negotiators did not intend to subject American fishermen 

 to any such requirements, and the reasons why they refrained from so 

 doing will appear from an examination of the negotiations leading 

 up to the treaty, and the circumstances and conditions existing at 

 that time. 



The south and west coasts of Newfoundland are bold, rocky, and 

 inhospitable, icebound in the winter, and subject to violent tempests 

 at all seasons of the year. The confluence in their neighborhood 

 of the icy currents of the north with the warm Gulf Stream produces 

 these storms and also the dense fogs which veil the coasts and make 

 navigation in their vicinity extremely dangerous. It was not until a 

 comparatively recent period that Great Britain permitted permanent 

 settlements on the Newfoundland treaty coasts. The British Case* 

 recites the policy of exclusion which Great Britain pursued toward 

 the island, and the British statutes amply show that policy, which 

 was to discourage fishermen from settling on the island and reserve 

 the fisheries for the British possessions in Europe. A report of a 

 committee of the House of Commons of Great Britain appointed to 

 inquire into the state of the trade to Newfoundland, dated April 24, 

 1793, contains the testimony of William Knox, previously connected 

 with Lord North's ministry in England, who said that 



the Island of Newfoundland had been considered, in all former times, 

 as a great English ship moored near the banks during the fishing 

 season, for the convenience of the English fishermen. The Governor 

 was considered as the ship's captain, and all those who 'were con- 

 cerned in the fishery business as his crew, and subject to naval dis- 

 cipline while there, and expected to return to England when the sea- 

 son was over. * * * To prevent the increase of inhabitants on 

 the Island the most positive instructions were given to the Governors 

 not to make any grants of the lands and to reduce the number of those 

 who were already settled there. Their vessels ; as well as those belong- 

 ing to the colonies, were to be denied any priority of right in occupying 

 station in the bays or harbors for curing their fish over the vessels 

 from England ; and he was instructed to withhold from them what- 

 ever might serve to encourage them to remain on the Island ; and as 

 Lord North expressed it, whatever they loved to have roasted he was 

 to give them raw ; and whatever they wished to have raw, he was to 

 give them roasted. 6 



British Case, 6, 7, 8. 



* U. S. Counter Case, Appendix, 560, 561. 



