cxx INTRODUCTION 



for the substance of the instruction Lord Bathurst replied in the passage 

 quoted in Mr. Adams' letter to Mr. Monroe. In this passage there is 

 no reference to bays, whereas in the letter to Mr. Baker, and trans- 

 mitted by him to Mr. Monroe, bays were specifically mentioned. 



In the argument British counsel laid great stress upon the mention 

 of bays in Mr. Baker's letter and the omission of the word "bays" from 

 Mr. Adams' report. The matter probably was not regarded by Lord 

 Bathurst as serious, if a mistake had been made. The Baker letter, 

 however, is the best evidence of its terms. 



" You will," said Lord Bathurst, vinder date of September 7, 1815, ''take an 

 early opportunity of assuring Mr. Monroe that, as, on the one hand, the British 

 Government cannot acknowledge the right of the United States to use the British 

 territory for the purpose connected with the fishery, and that their fishing vessels 

 will be excluded from the bays, harbours, rivers, creeks, and inlets of all his 

 Majesty's possessions: so, on the other hand, the British Government does not 

 pretend to interfere with the fishery in which the subjects of the United States may 

 be engaged, either on the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 or other places in the sea, wilhout the jurisdiction of the marine league from the coasts 

 under the dominion of Great Britain."^ 



A careful perusal of this dociunent tends rather to confirm than to 

 confute the American contention, for the Americans are to be permitted, 

 as formerly, to fish off the Grand Banks, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 

 "or other places in the sea . . . without the jurisdiction of the marine 

 league from the coasts under the dominion of Great Britain." That is to 

 say, the Americans can fish within non-territorial waters, but they are 

 to be kept a marine league from the bays, harbors, rivers, creeks and 

 inlets of all His Majesty's possessions in so far as these coasts are "under 

 the Dominion of Great Britain." The Baker letter is a help rather than 

 a hindrance, because, if the waters referred to as bays, harbors, rivers, 

 creeks, and inlets can be considered, geographically speaking, as waters 

 of His Majesty's possessions, the concluding sentence makes it clear that 

 American fishermen are entitled to fish in any waters of His Majesty's 

 possessions, provided that they do so at a distance of a marine league 

 from the coasts, not of His Majesty's possessions, but under the domin- 

 ion of Great Britain.' 



* Appendix, British Case, p. 64. 



' As the Tribunal laid great stress upon the Baker letter (see the President's question to 

 Mr. Warren, Oral Argument, Vol. I, pp. 628-620), it is perhaps important to note that a careful 

 reading and consideration of the exact language of this document, regarded as funda- 

 mental by British counsel, would have thrown light on the distinction, sought to be 

 drawn by the Tribunal in the following passage of its award between "Dominion" and 

 "Dominions": 



"The United States also contend that the term 'bays of His Britannic Majesty's Domin- 



