248 THE ARGUMENT OP THE UNITED STATES. 



This would have been an opportune time for Great Britain to have 

 called the attention of the United States to the contention, if any was 

 then entertained by Great Britain, that all the bays of Newfound- 

 land were closed to the fishermen of the United States, and that 

 there was urgent necessity that they should be warned to that effect. 



Sir L. S. West contented himself with acknowledging the receipt of 

 Mr. Bayard's letter without making any such claim. Nor did the 

 British Government, which desired " by every means in their power 

 to avoid any friction which might be caused by the cessation of the 

 privileges lately enjoyed by United States fishermen" ever think 

 of this method of avoiding the anticipated friction, or ever question 

 the broad and unqualified assertion in Mr. Bayard's letter. 



1888 : The proposed treaty of 1888 6 is instructive as to the under- 

 standing of the United States, Great Britain, and Newfoundland 

 concerning the bays of the treaty coasts. The negotiators of the 

 treaty were of course fully advised as to all the contentions arising 

 from the seizures in 1886 and 1887, and familiar with the discussions 

 relating thereto. The British negotiators were Joseph Chamberlain, 

 Sir L. S. West, and Sir Charles Tupper. 



The bays, in which Americans were not at liberty to fish under the 

 treaty of 1818, were dealt with, and provision was made for a joint 

 commission to delimit the British waters, bays, etc. from which 

 American fishermen were to be excluded. These were the bays " as 

 to which the United States by Article I of the convention of October 

 20, 1818, between the United States and Great Britain renounced 

 forever any liberty to take, dry and cure fish," and nowhere in the 

 treaty is there any provision or suggestion of delimiting the bays, 

 harbors, and creeks of the treaty coasts. 



Fortune Bay and Placentia Bay on the non-treaty coasts of New- 

 foundland are among the bays specifically dealt with and limits were 

 prescribed within which it was proposed to withdraw them from 

 American use. Nothing is said of St. George's Bay or of any other 

 bay of the treaty coasts. No one conceived that the bays or harbors 

 of those coasts required delimitation, because it was understood that 

 the United States had rights in them throughout their entire extent 

 under the treaty of 1818. 



IT. S. Case, Appendix, 754. U. S. Case, Appendix, 40. 



6 U. S. Case, Appendix, 39. 



