44 ARGUMENT OF GEEAT BEITAIN. 



take fish unless he is an inhabitant of the United States. This ap- 

 pears to meet Mr. Root's argument that the contention of His Maj- 

 esty's Government involves as a corollary that no American vessel 

 would be entitled to enter the waters of British North America (in 

 which inhabitants of the United States are debarred from fishing by 

 the Convention of 1818) for any of the four specified purposes, unless 

 all the members of the crew are inhabitants of the United States. 



" Whatever may be the correct interpretation of the Treaty as to 

 the employment of foreigners generally on board American vessels, 

 His Majesty's Government do not suppose that the United States 

 Government lay claim to withdraw Newfoundlanders from the juris- 

 diction of their own Government so as to entitle them to fish in the 

 employment of Americans in violation of Newfoundland laws. The 

 United States Government do not, His Majesty's Government under- 

 stand, put their claim higher than that of a ' common ' fishery, and 

 such an arrangement cannot override the power of the Colonial Leg- 

 islature to enact laws binding on the inhabitants of the colony. 



" It can hardly be contended that His Majesty's Government have 

 lost their jurisdiction not only over American fishermen fishing in 

 territorial waters of Newfoundland, but also over the British sub- 

 jects working with them." 



POINTS FOR DISCUSSION. 



The occasion that immediately gave rise to this question was the 

 employment of British subjects in the fishery carried on by the 

 inhabitants of the United States in Newfoundland waters. Ameri- 

 can fishermen have during recent years claimed the right to send ves- 

 sels to those waters with crews sufficient only to navigate the vessels 

 themselves, and to rely, for the catching of fish, on Newfoundland 

 fishermen to be engaged there. Under such a system the fishing 

 operations, while financed and controlled by inhabitants of the 

 United States, are really carried on by British subjects. As appears 

 from the correspondence between the two Governments, the right to 

 hire local fishermen is one of the points to which the United States 

 have attached great importance. (British Case, App., p. 509.) 

 51 Under the Newfoundland Foreign Fishing Vessels Act, 1905, 



the engaging of any person to form part of the crew of a for- 

 eign fishing vessel in any port or any part of the coasts of the island 

 was made an offence punishable with forfeiture of the vessel. It 

 was out of this legislation, and further proposed legislation on the 

 same lines in 1906, that the discussion on the question under consid- 

 eration arose. 



But the difference is not confined to the employment of British 

 subjects. It has already been pointed out in the British Case that the 

 crews of American vessels are largely composed of foreigners, Nor- 

 wegians, Portuguese, &c., and the contention of the United States 

 is that any number of foreigners may be employed in fishing under 

 the treaty in British waters. 



