ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 217 



council would appear to be broad enough to cover the treaty 

 coast. 



Judge Gray: The treaty coasts of Canada? 



Senator Root: The treaty coasts of Canada. 

 Mr. Fish says, after acknowledging the receipt of the note of 

 Mr. Thornton: 



"I must invite your attention and that of Her Majesty's authorities to 

 the first paragraph of the order in council of the 8th of January last, as quoted 

 in the memorandum of the Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada, accom- 

 panying the despatch of his excellency the Governor General, which paragraph 

 is in the following language, to wit: 



"That the system of granting fishing Ucense to foreign vessels, under the 

 Act 31 Vic, cap. 61, be discontinued, and that henceforth all foreign fishermen 

 he preoented from fishing in the waters of Canada. 



"The words underscored seem to contemplate an interference with 

 rights guaranteed to the United States under the first article of the treaty 

 of 1818, which secures to American fishermen the right of fishing in cer- 

 tain waters which are understood to be claimed at present as belonging to 

 Canada." 



Mr. Thornton writes back to Mr. Fish a letter on the same 

 page (581 of the United States Case Appendix), acknowledging 

 Mr. Fish's note and sa)dng: 



"I am forwarding a copy of your note to the Governor General of Canada; 

 but, in the meantime, I beg you will allow me to express my conviction that 

 there was not the slightest intention in issuing the above-mentioned order, 

 to abridge citizens of the United States of any of the rights to which they 

 are entitled by the treaty of October 20, 1818, and which are tacitly acknowl- 

 edged in the Canadian law of May 22, 1868, a copy of which I had the honor 

 to forward to you in my note of the 14th instant." 



Subsequently these were sent, and on pp. 587 and 588 may be 

 found communications which straighten out the whole question 

 in accordance with Mr. Thornton's assurance. 



On p. 587 is a further letter from Mr. Thornton to Mr. Davis, 

 the Assistant Secretary of State, enclosing a copy of a despatch from 

 the Governor-General of Canada, to whose attention this question 

 raised by Mr. Fish had been brought; and the Governor-General 

 of Canada, it appears on this same p. 587, had sent to Mr. Thornton 

 a report of the Minister of Marine of Canada, and that report 



