I70 FISHERIES ARBITRATION AT THE HAGUE 



merchandise on board of the fishing vessel" are necessary for the 

 transaction of their fishery or the support of the fishermen.- Some- 

 body has to say that; and this regulation, I apprehend, was ob- 

 jected to because it put the decision of that question in the hands of 

 the local ofl&cer, who, if he did not feel very kindly toward foreigners 

 that were coming there to take his neighbors' fish away, would be 

 apt to find that they had things on board which they did not need, 

 just as in Canada there was for a time appHed the rule that a vessel 

 under the renunciatory clause could not go to the non-treaty coast 

 for shelter, wood, and water, unless she was actually in distress, 

 and unless she brought wood and water with her sufl&cient for her 

 voyage, and had been imexpectedly deprived of her store; that is 

 to say, they held that a vessel could not come up to the coast with 

 an insufficient supply of wood or water and rely upon getting it 

 there. It had got to be a case of real distress, arising without pre- 

 meditation, in order to justify it. Of course that did not last for 

 many years. I think that was disposed of by the opinion of the 

 law officers of the Crown of 1839. 



These two were rejected by the United States, and the ground 

 of the objection is stated at p. 314 of the United States Case Appen- 

 dix, in a formal memorandum given by the United States Commis- 

 sioners to the British Commissioners. I read from the second 

 paragraph on p. 314. The American Commissioners say, regarding 

 these proposals : 



"The liberty of taking fish within rivers is not asked. A positive clause 

 to except them is unnecessary, unless it be intended to comprehend under 

 that name waters which might otherwise be considered as bays or creeks. 

 Whatever extent of fishing ground may be secured to American fishermen, 

 the American plenipotentiaries are not prepared to accept it on a tenure or 

 on conditions different from those on which the whole has heretofore been 

 held. Their instructions did not anticipate that any new terms or restric- 

 tions would be annexed, as none were suggested in the proposals made by 

 Mr. Bagot to the American Government. The clauses forbidding the spread- 

 ing of nets, and making vessels liable to confiscation in case any articles not 

 wanted for carrying on the fishery should be found on board, are of that descrip- 

 tion, and would expose the fishermen to endless vexations." 



And that was assented to by the British Commissioners upon the 

 ground not that there was a right of legislation to cover these points, 

 but upon the ground that it was not important. The letter from 



