QUESTION THREE. 63 



this assertion is the British Statute 3 Geo. IV, cap. 44, in which a 

 list of ports appears, at which entry under certain circumstances was 

 permitted. The ports named in this list were " free ports " for the 

 purposes mentioned in the Act. But there were many ports other 

 than free ports, as the Statute clearly indicates, and it would be in- 

 correct to infer that vessels could not be entered or reported at any 

 port in Newfoundland except St. John's. (United States Counter- 

 Case, App., p. 71.) 



LIGHT DUES. 



Writers on international law are agreed that nations which estab- 

 lish and maintain light-houses, sea-marks, and other things necessary 

 to the safety of mariners may levy a reasonable tax upon the vessels 

 using them. And it has never been suggested that the assent of other 

 nations is necessary to the validity of such exactions. 



Grotius, writing in 1625 (De Jure Belli Ac Pads), said: 



" XIV. Neither is it contrary to the Law of Nature, or that of 

 Nations, that those who shall take upon them the Burden and Charge 

 of securing and assisting Navigation, either by erecting or maintain- 

 ing Light-Houses, or by affixing Sea-Marks, to give Notice of Rocks 

 and Sands, should impose a reasonable Tax upon those who sail that 

 Way. Such was that which the Romans levied upon the Red Sea, to 

 defray the Charge of a Fleet against the Excursions of Pirates ; and 

 that Duty which the Byzantines demanded in the Euxin Sea/ and 

 that which the Athenians long before imposed on the same Sea, when 

 in Possession of Chrysoplis, both which are mentioned by Polybius. 

 And that, which Demosthenes, in his Oration against Leptines, shews, 

 the same Athenians required in the Hellespont; and which Procopius 

 says, in his secret History, that the Roman Emperors exacted in his 



Time." 



73 The application of this rule, so far as it is not affected by 



considerations of treaty rights or privileges, is so universally 

 acknowledged by all nations that it is not anticipated that any question 

 will arise with regard to it. The only question, therefore, is whether 

 the vessels of the American fishermen, arriving in the treaty waters 

 of Canada or Newfoundland to exercise their treaty liberty, are ex- 

 empt from the operation of this general principle. 



At the outset it is to be observed that the treaty is altogether silent 

 upon the subject. It does not in terms confer on Great Britain any 

 right to levy such dues on American fishing- vessels, nor, on the other 

 hand, does it prohibit their imposition. Indeed, the treaty makes no 

 reference whatever to the vessels from which American fishermen 

 may operate, or to the rights or liabilities of American fishermen in 

 respect of them. It is submitted, therefore, that the right of Great 

 Britain to impose these dues is not affected by the treaty, beyond the 



English Edition of 1738, Book II, Chapter III. 



