34 ARGUMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



And as stated in the letter of the 10th July, 1873 (British Case, 

 App., p. 253), Mr. Fish said that 



" as the United States authorities would expect British fishermen, in 

 American waters, to observe the police regulatons with regard to 

 the fisheries, so the Government of the United States would make no 

 objection to similar regulations being enforced against American 

 fishermen in British waters ; " 



5. In 1878 occurred the dispute as to the rights of American fish- 

 ermen in Fortune Bay. There was a discussion as to the right of 

 His Majesty's Government to regulate fishing by American fisher- 

 men on the coasts which had been thrown open to them by the treaty 

 of 1871, but no definite result was obtained. Great Britain admitted 

 that the Newfoundland fishermen were wrong in taking the law 

 into their own hands, and paid compensation for that reason, while 

 expressly reserving her position on the general question of the right 



to regulate. 



39 The correspondence between Mr. Evarts and Lord Salis- 



bury has been set out at length in the British Case (p. 31 

 et seq.}. 



Lord Granville, who succeeded Lord Salisbury as Foreign Secre- 

 tary, in his despatch of the 27th October, 1870, to Mr. Lowell, stated 

 clearly the British position (British Case, App., p. 289) : 



" In the first place, I desire that there should be no possibility of 

 misconception as to the views entertained by Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment respecting the conduct of the Newfoundland fishermen in 

 violently interfering with the United States' fishermen, and destroy- 

 ing or damaging some of their nets. Her Majesty's Government have 

 no hesitation in admitting that this proceeding was quite indefensible, 

 and is much to be regretted. No sense of injury to their rights, 

 however well founded, could, under the circumstances, justify the 

 British fishermen in taking the law into their own hands, and com- 

 mitting acts of violence; but I will revert by and by to this feature 

 in the case, and will now proceed to the important question raised 

 in this controversy, whether, under the Treaty of Washington, the 

 United States' fishermen are bound to observe the fishery regulations 

 of Newfoundland in common with British subjects. 



"Without entering into any lengthy discussion on this point, I 

 feel bound to state that, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, 

 the clause in the Treaty of Washington which provides that the 

 citizens of the United States shall be entitled, <in common with 

 British subjects,' to fish in Newfoundland waters within the limits of 

 British sovereignty, means that the American and the British fisher- 

 men shall fish in these waters upon terms of equality; and not that 

 there shall be an exemption of American fishermen from any reason- 

 able regulations to which British fishermen are subject. 



"Her Majesty's Government entirely concur in Mr. Marcy's Cir- 

 cular of the 28th March, 1856. The principle therein laid down ap- 

 pears to them perfectly sound, and as applicable to the fishery provi- 

 sions of the Treaty of Washington as to those of the Treaty which 

 Mr. Marcy had in view. They cannot, therefore, admit the accuracy 



