xlvi INTRODUCTION 



"is willing and ready now, as it has always been, to join with the 

 Government of Great Britain in agreeing upon all reasonable and 

 suitable regulations for the due control of the fishermen of both 

 countries in the exercise of their rights, but this Government cannot 

 permit the exercise of those rights to be subjected to the will of 

 the Colony of Newfoundland. The Government of the United States 

 cannot recognize the authority of Great Britain or of its Colonies to 

 determine whether American citizens shall fish on Sunday. The Govern- 

 ment of Newfoundland cannot be permitted to make entry and clearance 

 at a Newfoundland Custom-house, and the payment of a tax for the 

 support of Newfoundland Ughthouse conditions to the exercise of the 

 American right of fishing. If it be shown that these things are reason- 

 able the Government of the United States will agree to them, but it 

 can not submit to have them imposed upon it without its consent." ' 



In Mr. Root's view the question was not one of theory but of vast 

 practical importance, because if Great Britain or its colony — New- 

 foundland — had the right to pass statutes binding aUke upon American 

 citizens and British subjects engaged in fishing within British waters, it 

 would follow necessarily that Great Britain or Newfoundland might 

 legislate the fishery out of existence, notwithstanding the treaty, by 

 burdening it with conditions which American fishermen might be unable 

 to meet, or might in the alleged interest of the fishery discontinue it 

 during certain periods or limit its exercise to certain specified regions. 



To this full and, as it proved, final statement of the American inter- 

 pretation of'the Convention of 1818, Sir Edward Grey replied in a care- 

 ful note to Mr. Reid, dated June 20, 1907, in which, after placing on 

 record his "appreciation of the fairness with which Mr. Root has stated 

 the American side of the question," he set forth the views of the British 

 Government in what Ukewise proved to be their final form. Sir Edward 

 Grey said: 



"The main question at issue is, however, that of the application of the Newfound- 

 land regulations to American fishermen. In this connection the United States Govern- 

 ment admit the justice of the view that all regulations and limitations upon the 

 exercise of the right of fishing upon the Newfoundland Coast, which were in existence at 

 the time of the Convention of 181 8, would now be binding upon American fishermen. 

 Although Mr. Root considers that to be the extreme view which His Majesty's Govern- 

 ment could logically assert, and states that it is the utmost to which the United States 

 Government could agree, His Majesty's Government feel that they cannot admit 

 any such contention, as it would involve a complete departure from the position which 

 they have always been advised to adopt as to the real intention and scope of the treaties 

 upon which the American fishing-rights depend. In this vital point of principle there 



1 Mr. Root to Mr. Whitelaw Reid. Appendix, p. 4S3; Appendix, U. S. Case, p. 978; Ap- 

 pendix, British Case, p. 498. 



