56 ARGUMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



G4 Sir Edward Grey replied in his memorandum of the 2nd 



February, 190G, in the following terms (British Case, App., 

 p. 495) : 



" The United States' Government, on their part, admit, in Mr. 

 Root's note, that the Colonial Government are entitled to have an 

 American vessel engaged in the fishery refrain from violating any 

 laws of Newfoundland not inconsistent with the Convention, but 

 maintain that if she does not purpose to trade, but only to fish, she 

 is not bound to enter at any Newfoundland custom-house. 



" Mr. Root's note refers only to the question of entry inwards, but 

 it is presumed that the United States' Government entertain the 

 same views on the question of clearing outwards. At all events, 

 American vessels have not only passed to the fishing grounds in the 

 inner waters of the Bay of Islands without reporting at a Colonial 

 custom-house, but have also omitted to clear on returning to the 

 United States. In both respects they have committed breaches of the 

 Colonial Customs Law, which, as regards the obligations to enter 

 and to clear, makes no distinction between fishing- and trading- 

 vessels. 



" His Majesty's Government regret not to be able to share the view 

 of the United States' Government that the provisions of the Colonial 

 Law which impose those obligations are inconsistent with the Con- 

 vention of 1818, if applied to American vessels which do not purpose 

 to trade, but only to fish. They hold that the only ground on which 

 the application of any provisions of the Colonial Law to American 

 vessels engaged in the fishery can be objected to is that it unreason- 

 ably interferes with the exercise of the American right of fishery. 



" It is admitted that the majority of the American vessels lately 

 engaged in the fishery on the western coast of the Colony were reg- 

 istered vessels, as opposed to licensed fishing-vessels, and as such 

 were at liberty both to trade and to fish. The production of evidence 

 of the United States' registration is therefore not sufficient to estab- 

 lish that a vessel, in Mr. Root's words, ' does not purpose to trade 

 as well as fish,' and something more would seem clearly to be neces- 

 sary. 



"The United States' Government would undoubtedly be entitled 

 to complain if the fishery of inhabitants of the United States were 

 seriously interfered with by a vexatious and arbitrary enforcement 

 of the Colonial Customs laws, but it must be remembered that, in pro- 

 ceeding to the waters in which the winter fishery is conducted, Ameri- 

 can vessels must pass in close proximity to several custom-houses, 

 and that in order to reach or leave the grounds in the arms of the 

 Bay of Islands, on which the fishery has been principally carried on 

 during the past season, they have sailed by no less than three custom- 

 houses on the shores of the" bay itself. So that the obligation to 

 report and clear need not in any way have interfered with a vessel's 

 operations. It must also be remembered that a fishery conducted in 

 the midst of practically the only centers of population on the 

 65 west coast of the Colony affords ample opportunities for illicit 

 trade, and consequently calls for careful supervision in the 

 interests of the Colonial revenue. 



"The provisions in question are clearly necessary for the preven- 

 tion of smuggling, and His Majesty's Government are of opinion 



