2S6 FISHERIES ARBITRATION AT THE HAGUE 



far as Newfoundland thinks reasonable, which is no line at all; 

 which would put always upon Great Britain the necessity of either 

 assenting to the always extreme position that Newfoundland must 

 take, which the conditions, the nature of things, the fact that they 

 are burdened, the fact that we are their competitor, would compel 

 them to take; or of overruling Newfoundland without any definite 

 line of right on which to overrule her, and of course creating resent- 

 ment and trouble. 



It is better for all parties as a practical matter to have a clear 

 line drawn, so that the position of Great Britain will be one of a 

 relation to her colony upon a line of right, instead of a most invidious 

 and dif&cult position of being compelled to be a judge deciding for 

 or against her own child in a matter of uncontrolled discretion. 



I want to submit to you that the history of our relations with 

 Great Britain indicates that there will not be any trouble about 

 agreement. There may be some specific and definite question 

 that we will have to leave out to somebody, that we will have to 

 get an opinion upon, but rather for the purpose of backing us up 

 in making an agreement than for any other reason. There is no 

 reason why, if we had this line of right settled, we should not take 

 up the subject of general regulations just where Lord Bathurst and 

 Mr. Adams left off. When Lord Bathurst proposed and our 

 government accepted the proposition that there should be joint 

 regulations it was, as you will remember, pushed aside by the 

 alternative of pushing us aside to the wild and unsettled coast, 

 where there was not any real use of going on with the subject of 

 joint regulations. There is no reason why we should not take it 

 up but for this difficulty of Great Britain in dealing with a colony 

 that is sure to be extreme, without having any definite line of right 

 upon which to deal with it. 



That there is no obstacle to regulations if both parties know 

 what they are entitled to is quite clear from the way in which 

 countries about this sea live under the joint regulations of the North 

 Sea Fishery. There is no reason why this should not be done as 

 well as Great Britain and France, for so many years bitter enemies, 

 have been able to make their regulations under the treaty of 1839, 

 to make joint regulations in so far as they were concerned between 

 each other under the treaty of 1857, which contained an elaborate 



