ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 45 



in them, and, further, had they secured all they had barred they could have, I 

 believe, filled every vessel of theirs in the bay. They would have probably 

 frightened the rest away, and it would have been useless for the English to 

 stay, for the little left for them to take they could not have sold." 



On p. 700 Charles Dagle, American master, says in his affi- 

 davit: 



"If I had been allowed the privilege guaranteed by the Washington Treaty, 

 I could have loaded my vessel and all the American vessels could have loaded. 

 The Newfoundland people are determined that the American fishermen shall 

 not take herring on their shores. The American seines being very large and 

 superior in every respect to the nets of the Newfoundlanders, they cannot 

 compete with them." 



And there was another affair which illustrates what I am now 

 trying to make clear to the Tribunal, and that is that the Newfoimd- 

 land fishermen came to deem that they had rights in this trade 

 which the Americans ought not to interfere with by taking the 

 fish themselves. In 1880 some American vessels undertook to 

 take their own bait up in Conception Bay. That was while the 

 Treaty of Washington was still in force. I will read from the 

 affidavit of John Dago, on p. 715, at the foot of the page. He says 

 he left Gloucester on the ist April, 1880; then says: 



"On the gth August, 1880, we went into a cove in Conception Bay, called 

 Northard Bay, for squid. I put out four dories and attempted to catch my 

 bait with the squid jigs or hooks used for that purpose." 



Now, turning over to the top of p. 716 of the United States Case 

 Appendix, I read: 



"My men went into the immediate vicinity of where the local shore boats 

 were fishing for squid, but in a short time they returned and reported to* me 

 that they were not allowed to fish by the men on board the shore boats, and not 

 wishing any trouble they returned on board. I then manned my lines on the 

 vessel and commenced to catch squid; the men in the shore boats seeing us 

 fishing came off to us 'to the number of sixteen boats, with some thirty men. 

 These men demanded that I should stop fishing or leave, or else buy squid from 

 them. They were very violent in their threats, and to avoid trouble I bought 

 my squid, paying them one hundred and fifty dollars for the squid, which I 

 could easily have taken if I had not been interfered with. 



"Wherever I have been in Newfoundland I find the same spirit exists, 

 and that it is impossible for any American vessel to avail herself of the privi- 

 leges conferred by the Treaty of Washington." 



