342 BALCH— THE AMERICAN-BRITISH [April «. 



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 

 conditions existing prior to the treaty and recognized by it) and not from 

 any permission or authority proceeding from the government of Newfoundland. 



Secretary Root also called Sir Mortimer Durand's attention to 

 the evident hostile animus of the colony of Newfoundland towards 

 American fishing vessels as shown by the " Foreign Fishing Act " 

 enacted the previous June by the Newfoundland government.^* 

 The provisions in that act that gave authority to Newfoundland 

 officials to search any foreign fishing vessel in any of the territorial 

 waters of Newfoundland and upon finding any bait or fishing ap- 

 parel to arrest and bring the vessel into port, Secretary Root pointed 

 out were a clear and palpable infringement of American rights 

 under the Treaty of 1818 in the treaty waters. Secretary Root also 

 referred Sir Mortimer Durand's attention, as a result of the New- 

 foundland legislation that prohibited the sale of bait by the New- 

 foundlanders to American fishing vessels, to the unrest and pro- 

 found dissatisfaction existing among the local population living 

 along the shores of or near the " Bay of Islands " on the west coast 

 of Newfoundland with the resulting situation and the risk of serious 

 violence resulting therefrom. 



To these observations of the American Secretary, the British 

 Ambassador in reply enclosed in a note of February 2, 1906, to Mr. 

 Reid, the American Ambassador at London, a memorandum of Sir 

 Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary. ^^ In this memorandum 

 the British government replied that the privileges of fishing " con- 

 ceded " by the Treaty of 1818 in some of the territorial waters of 

 Newfoundland were " conceded, not to American vessels, but to in- 

 habitants of the United States and to American fishermen." The 

 British memorandum reasserted the old view enunciated by Earl 

 Bathurst, that by the Treaty of 1818 " a new grant to inhabitants of 

 the United States of fishing privileges within the British Jurisdic- 

 tion " was made. In the memorandum it was further maintained 

 that " American fishermen " could not claim to exercise the right of 



" " Supplement to the American Journal of International Law," January, 

 1907, p. 22. 



" " Supplement to the American Journal of International Law," October, 

 1907, P- 355- 



