THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY QUESTION. 2 19 



tion to him in the exercise of his fishing rights under Treaty 

 engagements. 



Again, and in a special manner, contended for by the colonists of 

 Newfoundland there is no legal tribunal, no Court of Appeal, for the 

 determination of the whole question, and the worst part of the 

 judicial business is this, that neither France nor England have been 

 willing, for a period of 2 7 7 years, to accept each other's interpretation 

 of the Treaties. 



It is somewhat remarkable that in this age of constitutional 

 freedom, and passion for judicial legislation everywhere, especially in 

 England, that the arbitrament of these interminable and vexatious 

 disputes between France and Newfoundland should be decided, 

 not by legal and judicial tribunals in Newfoundland, not by the 

 Privy Council, not by the Colonial Office, or the Secretary of State 

 for the Colonies, but by the arbitrament of a Naval Tribunal, composed 

 of British and French officers alone, ignorant of International Law, it 

 may be hostile to the aspirations of the people, and to the honourable 

 traditions of France and England, in favour of a just and generous 

 policy to subject races. 



Finally the people and Parliament of Newfoundland declare that any 

 solution of the present difficulties, whether by Arbitration, Joint Com- 

 . missions, or other international arrangements, by which the spirit or 

 letter of the Treaties from 1713 to 1815 are maintained, will in their 

 opinion be an absolute failure ; that the obligations under these 

 Treaties will keep alive disputes at every point, increasing in number, 

 and intensifying in bitterness ; that the hardships inflicted thereby upon 

 the people of Newfoundland have become intolerable, that the utmost 

 bounds of endurance on their part have been reached ; and that 

 there is but one way of escape, one solution, that as these Treaties 

 cannot be mended, they must be ended, and a termination put to 

 these so-called French Treaty Rights, out of which all these suffer- 

 ings, losses, and troubles have arisen. 



And in terminating these French Treaty Rights, they do not for a 

 moment propose that they should be terminated or repudiated with- 

 out fair and reasonable compensation to France, for they admit that 

 France has certain rights under them ; and that to terminate them 

 will require concessions and cosnpensation on the part of England. 



