428 APPENDIX 



months of November and February, taking from thence cargoes of frozen herring of 

 from SCO to 800 or 1,000 barrels. According to the evidence, these herrings have 

 hitherto generally been obtained by purchase. It is hardly possible, then, to conceive 

 that the Americans will continue to buy, possessing, as they now do, the right to 

 catch." 



The British case states the argument as to the Newfoundland fisheries in the 

 following language: 



"It is asserted, on the part of Her Majesty's Government, that the actual use 

 which may be made of this privilege at the present moment, is not so much in ques- 

 tion as the actual value of it to those who may, if they will, use it. It is possible, 

 and even probable, that the United States fishermen may at any moment avail them- 

 selves of the privilege of fishing in Newfoundland inshore waters, to a much larger 

 extent than they do at present; but even if they should not do so, it would not relieve 

 them from the obligation of making the just payment for a right which they have 

 acquired subject to the condition of making that payment. The case may be not 

 inaptly illustrated by the somewhat analogous one of a tenancy of shooting or fishing 

 privileges; it is not because the tenant fails to exercise the rights, which he has acquired 

 by virtue of his lease, that the proprietor should be debarred from the recovery of 

 his rent. 



"There is a marked contrast to the advantage of the United States citizens between 

 the privilege of access to fisheries the most valuable and, productive in the world, and 

 the barren right accorded to the inhabitants of Newfoundland of fishing in the exhausted 

 and preoccupied waters of the United States north of the 39th parallel of north lati- 

 tude, in which there is no field for lucrative operations, even if British subjects desired 

 to resort to them; and there are strong grounds for believing that year by year, as 

 United States fishermen resort in greater numbers to the coasts of Newfoundland, 

 for the purpose of procuring bait and supplies, they will become more intimately 

 acquainted with the resources of the inshore fisheries, and their unlimited capacity 

 for extension and development. As a matter of fact. United States vessels have, 

 since the Washington Treaty came into operation, been successfully engaged in these 

 fisheries; and it is but reasonable to anticipate that, as the advantages to be derived 

 from them become more widely known, larger numbers of United States fishermen 

 will engage in them. 



"A participation by fishermen of the United States in the freedom of these waters 

 must, notwithstanding their wonderfully reproductive capacity, tell materially on 

 the local catch, and while affording to the United States fishermen a profitable 

 employment, must seriously interfere with local success. The extra amount of bait, 

 also, which is required for the supply of the United States demand for bank fishery 

 must have the effect of diminishing the supply of cod for the inshores, as it is well 

 known that the presence of that fish is caused by the attraction offered by a large 

 quantity of bait fishes, and as this quantity diminishes the cod will resort in fewer 

 number to the coast. 



"The effect of this diminution may not, in all probability, be apparent for some 

 years to come, and whilst United States fishermen will have the liberty of enjoying 

 the fisheries for several years in their present teeming and remunerative state, the 

 effects of over fishing may, after their right to participate in them has lapsed, become 

 seriously prejudicial to the interests of the local fishermen. 



