PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Fifteenth Day.
14 May 1907.
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Before the American Revolution the inhabitants of all the British Colonies in North America, possessed as a common right, the right of fishing on all the coasts of what was then British North America, and these rights NEWFOUNDLAND were, in the broadest sense, prescriptive and accustomed rights of property. At the end of the revolution, and by the Treaty of Peace signed in 1883, the boundaries between the possessions of the two Powers, that is to say, the United States and Great Britain, were adjusted by Article III. of that Treaty, which reads as follows:--
FISHERY.
(Sir R. Bond.)
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Agreed, that the people of the United States shall continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand Bank, and on all the other banks of Newfoundland; also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and at all other places in the sea, where the inhabitants of both countries used at any time heretofore to fish, and also that the inhabitants of the United States shall have liberty to take fish of every kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British fishermen shall use (but not to dry or cure the same on that island), and also on the coasts, bays, and creeks of all other of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions in America."
This was a grant or recognition of a right agreed upon for a consideration, viz., the adjustment of the boundaries and other engagements into which the United States by that Treaty entered.
For our purpose, it is unnecessary to deal with the other articles of that Treaty.
From 1783, until the war between Great Britain and the United States in 1812, citizens of the United States continued to enjoy the ancient rights belonging to them as subjects of Great Britain before the Revolution, and reserved to them as citizens of the United States, to the extent outlined in the article of the Treaty of 1783, to which I have referred. Between those dates, other subjects of difference and negotiation, apart from the fisheries, arose between the two nations, which were disposed of by the Treaties of 1794 and 1802, but the fishery provisions of 1783 continued down to the period of the outbreak of war in 1812.
At the close of that war a Treaty of Peace was concluded on the 24th of December, 1814, which provided :-
(1) For the restoration to each party of all countries, territories, &c., taken by either party during the war, without delay, save some questions of islands in the Bay of Passamaquoddy ;
(2) For disposition of prizes and prisoners of war; and
(3) For questions of boundary and dominion regarding certain islands and for the settlement of the north-eastern boundary, and also for the north-western Foundary, but it made no reference whatever to any question touching the fisheries referred to in the Treaty of 1783.
On the 3rd of July 1815, Great Britain entered into a Commercial Treaty with the United States, which provided for reciprocal liberty of commerce between all the territories of Great Britain in Europe and the territories of the United States but made no stipulation as regards commercial intercourse between British Dominions in North America and the United States.
After the conclusion of the Treaty following the war of 1812, viz., that of the 24th of December 1814, there being then no treaty obligations or reciprocal laws in force between, or in either of the countries respecting cominercial intercourse, the British Government contended that the fishing
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14 May 1907.
FISHERY.
(Sir R. Bond.)
rights recognised and secured to the citizens of the United States by the Fifteenth Day, Treaty of 1783 had become abrogated in consequence of the war of 1812, on the principle of war annulling all unexecuted engagements between two helligerents. The fishing rights conveyed to the United States of America NEWFOUNDLAND by the Treaty of 1783 having been annulled by the war of 1812, the citizens of the United States no longer had the right to fish in any of the North American waters. This exclusion continued until the conclusion of the Treaty of the 20th October 1818, which Treaty remains in force to-day, and embodies the whole of the fishing privileges to which United States citizens are entitled in the waters that wash the coasts of Newfoundland and the Dominion of Canada.
Article I. of that Treaty contains a recital of the fishing privileges in British North American waters conveyed to the United States by the Imperial Government. That article reads as follows :—
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*Whereas differences have arisen respecting the liberty claimed by the United States, for the inhabitants thereof, to take, dry, aud cure fish on certain coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions in America, it is agreed between the high contracting parties that the inhabitants of the said United States shall have for ever, in common with subjects of His Britannic Majesty, the liberty to take fish of every kind on that part of the southern coast of Newfoundland, which extends from Cape Ray to the Rameau Islands; on the western and northern coast of Newfoundland from the said Cape Ray to the Quirpon Islands, on the shores of the Magdalen Islands, and also on the coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks froin Mount Joly, on the southern coost of Labrador, to and through the Straits of Belle Isle, and thence northwardly indefinitely along the coast, without prejudice, however, to any of the exclusive rights of the Hudson Bay Company. And that the American fishermen shall also have liberty for ever to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours, and creeks of the southern part of the coast of Newfoundland, above described, and of the coast of Labrador; but so soon as the same, or any portion thereof shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said fisherman to dry and cure fish at such portion so settled without previous agreenient for such purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the ground. And the United States hereby renounces for ever any liberty heretofore enjoyed or claimed by the inhabitants thereof to take, dry, or cure fish on or within three marine miles of any of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbours of his Britannic Majesty's Dominions in America not included within the above-mentioned limits:
“Provided, however, that the American fishermen shall be admitted to enter such bays or harbours for the purpose of shelter, and of repairing damages therein, of purchasing wood, and of obtaining water, and for no other purpose whatever. But they shall be under such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent their taking, drying, or curing fish therein, or in any other manner whatever abusing the privileges hereby reserved to them.”
The Treaty limited to a territorial extent the fishing rights of the people of the United States, which they had enjoyed as British subjects, and which had been recognised and continued under the Treaty of Peace of 1783, and down to the year 1812.
It provided for the continuance of the ancient rights of fishing on certain parts of the coast of the Colony of Newfoundland and of His Britannic