ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 195 



United States, by which the Americans may be admitted to a participation 

 in our fisheries, it should, as I have no doubt it will, be provided that the 

 citizens of the United States shall, equally with British subjects, be subject 

 to such Legislative Regulations as may be estabhshed for the protection 

 and preservation of Bait. Regulations of this nature would, under such 

 circumstances, be obviously matters of common interest to all." 



It is apparent that the Governor of Newfoundland did not con- 

 sider that the American Government was subject to the right of 

 legislative regulations, and he wanted provision to that effect in 

 case a new treaty was made. 



The Tribunal is familiar with the report of 1855, to which refer- 

 ence has just been made, that down to that time there was no 

 regulation in practical effect of any kind; so that, of course, the 

 Americans could not have been regulated. Then, in 1862, the 

 first Newfoundland act regulating fishing was passed, and in that 

 act was included the saving clause that 



"nothing in this Act contained shall in any way affect or interfere with the 

 rights and privileges granted by treaty to the subjects or citizens of any state 

 or power in amity with Her Majesty." 



I shall presently show the Tribunal that that was understood 

 in Newfoundland to except Americans from the purview of the Act. 

 That clause is continued in most of the statutes of Newfoundland 

 which follow. There are a few short statutes in which it does not 

 appear, but I think it may fairly be considered that those were 

 regarded as amendments of acts in which it did appear, so that 

 it would be operative. I do not know when the idea of New- 

 foundlanders changed about the effect of that saving clause. 

 There is evidence which I shall present to the Tribunal that 

 in 1862 they considered that the law they were passing did not 

 apply to Americans. In 1905 they considered that their law did 

 apply to Americans. Just where the change occurred I do not 

 know. But the saving clause appears in their statutes of 1862, 

 Consolidated Statutes of 1872, in their statutes of 1887, 1889, 

 1892, Consolidated Statutes, their "Foreign Fishing- Vessels Act 

 of 1893," their Act establishing the Department of Marine and 

 Fisheries in 1898 and "The Foreign Fishing- Vessels Act of 1905." 

 The Act estabHshing the Department of Marine and Fisheries in 

 1898 provides: 



