1909.] ATLANTIC FISHERIES QUESTION. 34 



between the Province of Nova Scotia and the neighboring island of 

 Cape Breton, a part of the colony of Nova Scotia, was not a free 

 passage to American vessels, because the Gut of Canso, which at 

 some points was only a mile wide, belonged as territorial waters to 

 Nova Scotia. Though this attempt to lay a claim to close the Gut 

 of Canso as a free highway of the sea to American vessels was not 

 seriously pushed at the time, the effort to claim the right to close it 

 to American vessels was renewed in the Bayard-Chamberlain Con- 

 vention of 1888.*'" In that instrument Canada proposed to guaran- 

 tee to American fishing vessels the free passage through the Gut of 

 Canso. But Canada was thereby undertaking to concede to Amer- 

 ica what already belonged to America as a right by the Law of Na- 

 tions. Not only in 1888 but long before that it was a well-estab- 

 lished principle of International Law that passages of the sea con- 

 necting two large bodies of water, were open to navigation by ves- 

 sels of all powers. 



Westlake, who for twenty years held the chair of International 

 Law in Cambridge University, and for six years was one of the 

 English members of The Hague International Court and to-day is 

 in the forefront of international jurists, in speaking of the right of 

 passage through straits, says :'^^ 



If the strait connects two tracts of open sea, as the Gut of Canso between 

 Cape Breton Island and the mainland of Nova Scotia, or the Straits of 

 Magellan and the other passages in the extreme south of America, the lawful 

 ulterior destination is clear, and there is a right of transit both for ships of 

 war and for mechantmen. 



Many other authorities can be cited to the same purpose, but 

 in view of this clear statement by Westlake, who, together with 

 Holland of Oxford, is one of Great Britain's leading living authori- 

 ties on questions of International Law, it does not seem worth while. 



The attempt at various times to include within the jurisdiction 

 of Canada and Newfoundland bays and gulfs more than six miles 

 in width, such as the Bay of Fundy and the Bale des Chaleurs, for 

 instance, is an attempted restriction on the freedom of the high 

 seas. 



"'" Senate Executive Documents, No. 113,50th Congress, ist Session, Wash- 

 ington, 1888, p. 135. 



*' John Westlake, " International Law," Part I., " Peace " ; Cambridge, 

 1904, p. 193. 



