QUESTION FIVE. 115 



inlet exceeds the maximum width of six miles at its mouth, and so 

 loses the character of territorial or inland waters, the jurisdictional 

 or proprietary line for the purpose of excluding foreigners from fish- 

 ing is measured along the shore of the bay, according to its sinuosi- 

 ties, and the limit of exclusion is three miles from low-water mark." 



PEBIOD 1887 TO 1888. 



In 1887, the Committee on Foreign Kelations of the United States 

 Senate reaffirmed the same view in the following passage (British 

 Case, App., p. 390) : 



"It would seem to be clear that by the universally recognised 

 public law among civilised nations, territorial jurisdiction of every 

 nation along the sea is limited to 3 marine miles from its coasts, as 

 they may happen to be, whether embracing long lines of open coast 

 or embracing great curvatures of sea-shore, which may, and often 

 do, almost surround vast bodies of the waters of the ocean. The 

 phrase of the treaty, therefore, speaking of bays, creeks and har- 

 bours of His Britannic Majesty's dominions, must be understood as 

 being such bays, creeks and harbours as by the public law of nations 



were and are within the territorial jurisdiction of the British 

 130 Government. The committee is therefore clear in its opinion 



that any pretension that exclusive British jurisdiction exists, 

 either by force of public law or of this treaty, within headlands 

 embracing such great bodies of water, and more than 6 marine miles 

 broad, must be quite untenable." 



It is obvious that the contention thus put forward in 1866, in 1877, 

 and in 1887 is quite inconsistent with the contention of the United 

 States, in their Case and Counter-Case, that the three-mile line 

 must follow the sinuosities of the coast, and it is submitted that both 

 views are alike inconsistent with the language of the treaty and 

 with international law. 



In 1888 a convention was negotiated (known as the Chamberlain- 

 Bayard convention). It proceeded upon the headland theory, and 

 provided that the limits of exclusion of United States fishermen 

 should be as follows: 



Certain named bays which measure between the headlands as 

 follows: Bay of Chaleurs, 16 miles; Miramichi Bay, 14| miles; 

 Egmont Bay, 17 miles; St. Ann's Bay, 17 miles; Fortune Bay, lOf 

 and 11 miles; Sir Charles Hamilton Sound, 5f and 6J miles; three 

 marine miles seaward from lines drawn across headlands of other 

 specified bays as follows: Barrington Bay, 6f and 7f miles; Cheda- 

 bucto and St. Peter's Bays, 8| and 9 miles; Mira Bay, Placentia 

 Bay, 7| and 10f miles; and as to bays, creeks, or harbours (British 

 Case, App., p. 42) 



"not otherwise specially provided for in this Treaty, such three 

 marine miles shall be measured seaward from a straight line drawn 

 across the bay, creek, or harbour, in the part nearest the entrance^ at 

 the first point where the width does not exceed ten marine miles." 



