58 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



Pour les baies le rayon de 3 milles sera mesur^ k partir d'une ligne 

 droite, tir^e, en travers de la bale, dans la partie la plus rapproch6e de 

 I'entr^e, au premier point ou I'ouverture n'exc6dera pas 10 milles, 



(Herstlett's, Vol. XV, p. 794.) 



British Order in Council, October 23, 1877. 



Prescribes the obligation of not concealing or effacing numbers or 

 marks on boats, employed in fishing or dredging for purposes of sale on 

 the coasts of England, Wales, Scotland and the Islands of Guernsey, 

 Jersey, Alderney, Sark and Man, and not going outside : 



(a) The distance of three miles from low water mark along the whole 

 extent of the said coasts : 



(6) In ease of bays less than 10 miles wide the line joining the head- 

 lands of said bays. 

 (Hertslett's, Vol. XIV, p. 1032.) 



To this list may be added the unratified Treaty of 1888 between 

 Great Britain and the United States which is so familiar to the Tribunal. 

 Such unratified Treaty contains an authoritative interpretation of the 

 Convention of October 20, 1818, sub-judice: "The three marine miles 

 mentioned in Article I of the Convention of October 20, 1818, shall be 

 measured seaward from low-water mark; but at every bay, creek or 

 harbour, not otherwise specifically 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, ' ' which is recog- 

 nizing the exceptional bays as aforesaid and laying the rule for the gen- 

 eral and common bays. 



It has been suggested that the Treaty of 1818 ought not to be studied 

 as hereabove in the light of any Treaties of a later date, but rather to be 

 referred to such British International Conventions as preceded it and 

 clearly illustrate, according to this view, what were, at the time, the 

 principles maintained by Great Britain as to their sovereignty over the 

 sea and over the coast and the adjacent territorial waters. In this con- 

 nection the Treaties of 1686 and 1713 with France, and of 1763 with 

 France and Spain have been recited and offered as examples also of ex- 

 clusion of nations by agreement from fishery rights on the high seas. 

 I cannot partake of such a view. The treaties of 1686, 1713 and 1763 

 can hardly be understood with respect to this, otherwise than as examples 

 of the wild, obsolete claims over the common ocean which all nations 

 have of old abandoned with the progress of an enlightened civilization. 

 And if certain nations accepted long ago to be excluded by convention 

 from fishing on what is to-day considered a common sea, it is precisely 



