INTRODUCTION cxliii 



that it ceased to be a bay when it lost the configuration and character- 

 istics of a bay, thus leaving each bay to stand as it were upon its own 

 bottom. If Great Britain and the United States agree that a particular 

 bay ceases to be a bay at such and such a point, then the rights of each 

 within its waters are ascertained. Should, however, they disagree, 

 confusion is sure to result, for the language of the court is vague and 

 indefinite. The Tribunal recommended that Great Britain and the 

 United States adopt the ten-mile rule and delimited many of the bays 

 on the non-treaty coast in accordance with the unratified Bayard- 

 Chamberlain Treaty of 1888. A comparison of the award and this 

 treaty shows, however, that the determination of the Tribunal was 

 slightly more favorable to the United States. Should Great Britain and 

 the United States, or either of them, reject the ten-mile rule as recom- 

 mended by the Tribunal, confusion would result because the holding 

 of the Tribunal would be reduced to the bare statement that the bays 

 of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America are geographical, 

 not territorial bays, without specifying when a bay is, or ceases to be, 

 geographical. 



Question VI 



In thedebate upon the Foreign Fishing Vessels Bill of 1905, Sir Robert 

 Bond, then Premier of Newfoundland, announced as a discovery of his 

 own, unthought of by any lawyer, unsuspected by the sharp-eyed and 

 astute statesmen of Great Britain and the United States who for a 

 century had examined and discussed the rights of American fishermen 

 within Newfoundland waters, that upon the correct interpretation of the 

 Convention of 1818 as advanced by a layman the fishermen of the 

 United States had no right to ply their calling within the harbors, creeks, 

 or coves of the so-called treaty coast of Newfoundland extending from 

 the Rameau Islands, on the south, and following the coast of Newfound- 

 land westerly to Cape Ray, and northerly to the Quirpon Islands; that 

 the liberty of American fishermen imder the Convention of 1818 to take 

 fish in the harbors, bays, and creeks of Newfoundland was limited "to 

 that portion of our dependency from Mount Joly, on the southern coast 

 of Labrador, to and through the straits of Belle Isle, and thence north- 

 wardly indefinitely." Sir Robert opined that this interpretation was 

 "of vast importance to the people of this country." If well taken the 

 point was indeed, as Sir Robert says, of vast importance. 



Impressed by the importance of the discovery, and desirous that he 

 should reap the benefit of it, he was naturally unwilling that his astute- 

 ness or priority should be questioned. 



