47 QUESTION TWO. 



AMERICAN FISHERMEN. 



Have the inhabitants of the United States, while exercising the lib- 

 erties referred to in said article, a right to employ, as members of the 

 fishing crews of their vessels, persons not inhabitants of the United 

 States f 



THE CONTENTIONS. 



The contentions of the two Governments are stated in the corre- 

 spondence between Mr. Root and Sir Edward Grey. Mr. Root 

 claimed that any American vessel was entitled to fish in treaty 

 waters, and that men of any nationality or place of residence might 

 be engaged to handle the ship, and its boats, or nets. Sir Edward 

 Grey replied that the privilege of fishery was conceded by article 1, 

 not to American vessels, but to inhabitants of the United States and 

 to American fishermen. The most material passages in this corre- 

 spondence are set out below. 



Mr. Root, writing on the 19th October, 1905, formulated the claim 

 of the United States in the following propositions (British Case, 

 App., p. 492) : 



" 1. Any American vessel is entitled to go into the waters of the 

 Treaty Coast and take fish of any kind. 



" She derives this right from the Treaty (or from the conditions 

 existing prior to the Treaty and recognized by it) and not from any 

 permission or authority proceeding from the Government of New- 

 foundland. 



" 2. An American vessel seeking to exercise the Treaty right is not 

 bound to obtain a licence from the Government of Newfoundland, 

 and, if she does not purpose to trade as well as fish, she is not bound 

 to enter at any Newfoundland custom-house. 



"3. The only concern of the Government of Newfoundland with 

 such a vessel is to call for proper evidence that she is an American 

 vessel, and, therefore, entitled to exercise the Treaty right, and to 

 have her refrain from violating any laws of Newfoundland not incon- 

 sistent with the Treaty. 



"4. The proper evidence that a vessel is an American vessel and 

 entitled to exercise the Treaty right is the production of the ship's 

 papers of the kind generally recognized in the maritime world as 

 evidence of a vessel's national character. 



41 



