2l8 THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY QUESTION. 



controversy, and out of touch with the opinions of the Newfound- 

 landers, on the question ; Commissions composed, in most instances, 

 if not always, by military and naval men, who often brought to the 

 discussion of the question those Iihperial considerations represented 

 by the words, Civis Romanus Sum. 



And, on the other hand, the results of the labours of the Com- 

 missions, and the terms of the Articles and Protocols of the Conven- 

 tions left untouched, or at the most dealt inadequately with the more 

 serious matters in dispute, those vital questions for the Colony, of 

 its territorial Sovereignty, that placed it in imminent peril. 



By the rigid enforcement of the assumed French rights over the 

 territory of Newfoundland, which France maintains has been 

 guaranteed to her for fishing operations by Treaties, the Colonists 

 declare that they are prohibited thereby from constructing any 

 building whatsoever, or of making any road or thoroughfare ; and 

 further, that they are prevented from purchasing or entering upon the 

 occupation of a single rood of land within the three miles area of the 

 coast line ; in fact, according to the interpretation by France of the 

 Treaties, the territory is French, and not English, and the subjects 

 of England in Newfoundland must be amenable to the law of France, 

 and to any action which she may take to enforce her assumed rights. 



The position, therefore, taken up by the Newfoundlanders, in regard 

 to the interpretation and application of the Treaties is this, that the so- 

 called French rights, either for the use of the waters, or for the 

 occupation of the territory, are strictly limited to the actual fishery 

 rights under the Treaties. That is to say, that there should be in 

 the first place no exclusive " French rights," but concurrent rights 

 by the Newfoundlanders, with no limitation to its exercise by the 

 English colonists, but an absolute right of fishing upon the waters or 

 in the harbours, surrounding the territory of Newfoundland. 



On the contrary, the French fisherman considers, and this view is 

 supported by the Government of France, that he has an absolute 

 right to fish wherever he pleases, that the 700 miles of coast line of 

 Newfoundland, and of its shores, rippled by the waters, is always open 

 to him to carry on his fishing operations, and that there is no limit 

 whatsoever to his right of selection, nor of action. 



The Frenchmen, backed up by the naval power of France on the 

 spot, which in its action is supported by the authority of the 

 Ministers of the French Government, boldly declares against any 

 permanent occupation by British subjects of any part of the reserved 

 ground, for any purpose whatever, because it would be an interrup- 



