250 THE ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



as to the effect of the treaty of 1818 must therefore be assigned to the 

 period between April 15, 1904, and April 7, 1905. 



1905 : Premier Bond, in 1905, in announcing for the first time the 

 present contention, admitted that Americans had fished, " for 

 years, in the bays and harbours of the west coast of Newfoundland." 



Mr. Morine, leader of the opposition, on the same day stated that 

 if originally there was anything in the claim advanced by Sir Robert 

 Bond, " the advantage had long been lost by the custom in usage 

 of the two countries." 6 



THE BOND THEORY NOT FAVORED BY GREAT BRITAIN OR NEW- 

 FOUNDLAND. 



The Counter Case of the United States points out c that Sir 

 Robert Bond's contention was discredited in Newfoundland. It 

 may be added that it also failed to convince the Government of 

 Great Britain. 



The controversy of 1905 began with a report which reached Mr. 

 Root, then Secretary of State, that American vessels on register had 

 been forbidden at Bay of Islands to fish on the treaty coasts. Mr. 

 Root called the attention of Sir Mortimer Durand to this report, by 

 note of October 12, 1905, pointing out that American vessels had 

 fished there " unmolested since 1818" 



Mr. Root added: 



It seems unfortunate that the government of Newfoundland should 

 undertake to prohibit a practice justified by the construction of the 

 various treaties relating to the Newfoundland fisheries for more than 

 a century without any suggestion by the Government of Great Brit- 

 ain that that Government proposes any change of construction and 

 without any exchange of views between the two governments upon 

 the subject.* 



During the whole subsequent correspondence these assertions are 

 not called in question. The words " treaty coast " are used and 

 clearly include the " bays," for it was of the prohibition given at the 

 Bay of Islands that Mr. Root was writing ; and in his note of October 

 19, 1905, he called attention to a similar prohibition at Bonne Bay/ 



U. S. Counter Case, Appendix, 414. d U. S. Case, Appendix, 964. 

 6 U. S. Counter Case, Appendix, 425. U. S. Case, Appendix, 966. 

 U. S. Counter Case, 102. 



