200 FISHERIES ARBITRATION AT THE HAGUE 



That is to say, Newfoundland, even then, did not understand 

 that a proviso to her suspension of statutes, during the life of the 

 treaty of 187 1 — • 



"provided that such laws, rules, and regulations relating to the time and 

 manner of prosecuting the fisheries on the coasts of this island shall not be 

 in any way affected by such suspension" — 



would apply to subsequent legislation. She seeks to get the treaty 

 of 187 1 supplemented by a protocol so as to permit this proviso to 

 take effect, upon the ground that it does not apply to subsequent 

 legislation, but only applies to past legislation, and that the sole 

 object of it is to bring the Americans on the west coast in under the 

 operations of the provisions of the Act of 1862, which did not then 

 apply to them. 



I hope my references to the Act of 1862 are intelligible to the 

 Tribunal. 



Judge Gray: The Newfoundland Act of 1862? 



Senator Root: Yes; the Newfoundland Act of 1862. 



The treaty of 187 1, which was for its Ufe to supersede the opera- 

 tion of the treaty of 1818, required an Act by Newfoundland to 

 make it applicable. Newfoundland passed the Act, suspending all 

 laws inconsistent with the treaty, with a proviso that the suspension 

 should not operate upon laws or regulations relating to the time 

 and manner of fishing. And she asked for a protocol supplementing 

 the treaty by the acceptance of that proviso, upon the ground that 

 it would not apply to any subsequent legislation, and that its only 

 object was to bring the American fishermen on the west coast in 

 under the operation of the already existing statutes of Newfound- 

 land, which, a fortiori, did not apply to the American fishermen at 

 all; that is, statutes relating to the time and manner of fishing. 

 Nothing can be clearer than that this authentic, authoritative posi- 

 tion of the government of Newfoundland, indicated through the 

 British Minister at Washington, was in accordance with the view 

 which I have been pressing upon the Tribunal. 



I shall not detain the Tribunal by going over again the question 

 about the Halifax case, further than to make the single observation 

 that in that case the computation by the British counsel of the 



