QUESTION FIVE. 151 



bays, but to the small bays indenting the coasts and to the bays, 

 harbors, and creeks indenting the coasts of the large outer bays. It 

 was these bays which were suitable for shelter and within which wood 

 could be purchased, water obtained, and repairs made. 



The negotiators for the United States reported that they " insisted 

 on the clause by which the United States renounce their right to the 

 fisheries relinquished by the convention, that clause having been 

 omitted in the first British counter project." And it will be further 

 observed that this insistence was because, among other reasons, " of 

 its being expressly stated that our renunciation extended only to the 

 distance of three miles from the coasts. This last point was the 

 more important, as with the exception of the fishery in open boats 

 within certain harbours, it appeared from the communications above 

 mentioned that the fishing ground on the whole coast of Nova 

 Scotia is more than three miles from the shores; whilst on the con- 

 trary, it is almost universally close to the shore on the coasts of 

 Labrador." 



" The fishing ground on the whole coast of Nova Scotia is more 

 than three miles from the shores." By this report the plenipo- 

 tentiaries clearly establish that they understood the renunciatory 

 clause to relate to waters within three miles from the shores, and 

 that the word coast included the whole coast of Nova Scotia, com- 

 prehending the coast bordering the Bay of Fundy. 



In the British Case a the surprising statement is made that no one 

 seemed to have conceived that the three mile limit should be measured 

 from the shores until the cupidity of the fishermen of the United 

 States was aroused by the mackerel fisheries. This statement is the 

 more remarkable from the fact that this report of the plenipoten- 

 tiaries of the United States, drafted on the day the treaty was signed, 

 has been a public document known to the Government of Great 

 Britain for more than three quarters of a century, and is printed in 

 the Appendix to the British Case, 6 while, on the other hand, the Gov- 

 ernment of Great Britain has never published in full the reports of 

 their plenipotentiaries. It may be presumed, as elsewhere stated in 

 this argument, that the reports of the British negotiators would at 

 least not assist the British contention or weaken the position of the 

 United States. 



British Case, 83. 6 British Case, Appendix, 94. U. S. Counter Case, 11. 



