234 FISHERIES ARBITRATION AT THE HAGUE 



the exercise of the Uberty, and she is not at Hberty to make that 

 test an illusion, to destroy it, to withdraw it by saying. My will, 

 my judgment alone, shall be sovereign — as she does say when she 

 arrogates to herself the sole right to decide; and there is no more 

 right to destroy the test under the theory of obligatory relation 

 than under the theory of a real right. Great Britain is not at liberty 

 to stand, on the position she asserts here, upon either theory, that 

 her judgment and her will, or the judgment that she has handed 

 over to the Legislature of Newfoundland in its will, shall make and 

 put into force a law which shall bind our fishermen in the exercise 

 of our right, under which our vessels shall be seized and forfeited, 

 under which men shall be arrested, xmder which our fishermen shall 

 be kept off the coast and shall be prevented from following their 

 industry and exercising it profitably, on the faith that at some future 

 day we will carry an appeal to the government of Great Britain, 

 then an appeal to a tribunal to be created in the future, and all the 

 time suffering the slow process of diplomatic correspondence pending 

 the framing of the submission, pending the framing of the questions, 

 the selection of the arbitrators, and the creation of such a feehng 

 on the part of both countries as to justify their goverimients in 

 making an appeal, while all that time the judgment — the uncon- 

 trolled, sole judgment — of the Legislature of Newfoundland is, 

 according to the British theory, to be in effect and operation. 



It requires a long, long period of accumulated grievances to 

 move two great nations to an arbitration. Many a fisherman has 

 worn out his hfe waiting upon that slow process. I know men 

 working for day's wages now who ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago 

 were masters of ships, and who have a claim that never yet has 

 reached final decision and fruition. It is not one grievance, or two, 

 or a dozen, but through the long process of years an accumulation 

 of grievances must occur before the humble fishermen of the United 

 States can move two great countries to an arbitration. 



Now, I say against the exercise of the uncontrolled power of the 

 Legislature of Great Britain or the Legislature of Newfoundland 

 to make and put into force provisions relating to the time and 

 manner of the exercise of this treaty right, under the obHgatory view, 

 as under the real view, the concession of Great Britain, in the state- 

 ment of Question i, stands as a barrier; and under the obligatory 



