ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 367 



right to trade. Of course the question being framed, it becomes 

 our question and Great Britain's question. It was rather a surprise 

 to us, because the diplomatic correspondence between the two 

 countries, the United States and Great Britain, indicated an entire 

 agreement upon this trading matter. 



The American Secretary of State, in his letter to the British 

 Minister at Washington, on the 19th October, 1905, which appears 

 in the American Appendix at p. 966, had referred to certain dis- 

 patches which had been received from masters of American vessels 

 in Newfoundland waters, in these words: 



"These dispatches agree in the statement that vessels of American registry 

 are forbidden to fish on the Treaty Coast. One captain says that he was 

 informed that he could not fish by the Inspector of the Revenue Protection 

 Service of Newfoundland, and several of them that they had been ordered 

 not to take herring by the Collector of Customs at Bonne Bay, Newfoundland. 



"It would seem that the Newfoundland officials are making a distinction 

 between two classes of American vessels. We have vessels which are regis- 

 tered, and vessels which are licensed to fish and not registered. The license 

 carries a narrow and restricted authority; the registry carries the broadest 

 and most unrestricted authority. The vessel with a Ucense can fish, but 

 cannot trade; the registered vessels can lawfully both fish and trade. The 

 distinction between the two classes in the action of the Newfoundland author-- 

 ities would seem to have been implied in the dispatch from Senator Lodge 

 which I quoted in my letter of the 12th, and the imputation of the prohibition 

 of the Minister of Marine and Fisheries may perhaps have come from the 

 port officers, in conversation with the masters of American vessels, giving 

 him as their authority for their prohibitions." 



And the same letter further said : 



"far the greater part of the fleet now in northern waters consists of registered 

 vessels. The prohibition against fishing under an American register substan- 

 tially bars the fleet from fishing." 



To those representations the reply was received from the British 

 Ambassador, which appears in the American Counter-Case Appen- 

 dix, at p. 633, saying: 



"His excellency" — 



the Governor of Newfoundland — 



"telegraphs that no Newfoundland officer is preventing American vessels 

 from fishing on the treaty coast, and that no distinction is being drawn between 

 registered vessels and licensed vessels. 



