63 QUESTION THREE. 



CUSTOMS ENTRIES AND LIGHT AND HARBOUR DUES IN TREATY 



WATERS. 



Can the exercise by the inhabitants of the United States of the 

 liberties referred to in the said article be subjected, without the con- 

 sent of the United States, to the requirements of entry or report at 

 custom-houses, or the payment of light, or harbour, or other dues, or 

 to any other similar requirement, or condition, or exaction? 



The question is whether the inhabitants of the United States, com- 

 ing to fish under the treaty, are exempt from the requirement as to 

 entry and report, and the payment of dues which are imposed upon 

 vessels generally. 



All claim on behalf of Americans, exercising the treaty rights in 

 respect of fishing, to use their fishing-vessels for trading purposes 

 as of right has now been abandoned by the United States. If com- 

 mercial privileges for such vessels were claimed it would obviously 

 be impossible to contend for exemption from customs regulations. 

 But it is submitted that the United States are unable to point to any- 

 thing in the treaty itself or in any of the surrounding circumstances 

 which lends countenance even to the less extensive claim now put 

 forward. 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



The positions assumed by the two nations in the diplomatic corre- 

 spondence which preceded the present reference are sufficiently shown 

 in the following extracts: 



Mr. Root in his despatch of the 19th October, 1905, stated the 

 United States position as follows (British Case, App., p. 492) : 



" We consider that 



" 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." 



55 



