76 FISHERIES ARBITRATION AT THE HAGUE 



let alone they will adjust the matter. Great Britain did the same 

 thing to France; in addition to giving her territory in other parts 

 of the world, she gave the right to purchase bait, the ordinary 

 trading right, adapted to the uses of fishermen. 



So there is no very serious burden and no real cause for special 

 sympathy, except that the fishermen have a government that cares 

 more about the interest of the St. Johns traders than it does about 

 the interest of the fishermen. 



Where does all this leave us ? The British theory of their right 

 is, as I have said over and over again, that the treaty grant is 

 subject to the implied reservation of the British right to legislate. 

 That is stated without any reserve. The obligation of reason- 

 ableness is not an obHgation of sovereignty. If their theory is 

 correct, if the treaty grant is subject to the right of legislation, it 

 is subject to a right that is- under no obHgation of reasonableness 

 towards us. That is of the essence of sovereignty — itself to 

 determine what is the poKcy to be enacted into law. The policy 

 of the empire is to find its expression in the legislation of the empire 

 and all its legislative bodies. I need not trouble the Tribunal with 

 citations from the argument. Sir Robert Finlay stated it at the 

 outset: 



"Subjection to British legislative control was inherent in and formed an 

 essential part of the very subject-matter of the treaty." 



He said [p. 213]: 



" The right to make such regulations springs out of the sovereignty which 

 the British government retained over the coast and the territorial waters." 



It is not because of anything that is found in the treaty that that 

 statement is made. It is because Great Britain is sovereign, and the 

 right to which our treaty grant is subject is the right of sovereignty. 

 Nothing fhat counsel can say here can impose a limit upon that 

 right of sovereignty. We know well what it is. 



I am la)dng aside now, for the moment, what is said in the 

 statement of the question about reasonableness. I am merely 

 pursuing the British argument, the theory upon which the argu- 

 ment is based, for the purpose of testing, the soundness of the 

 proposition that the grant is subject to British sovereignty. If 



