This is the article, whicl the Tribunal at The Hague was
asked to interpret.
There were marked differences in the provisions of this
article and those of Article III of the Treaty of 1783. Under
the latter American fishermen had had the right to dry and cure
fish on the shores of Nova Scotia (then including the present
Province of New Brunswick), the Magdalen Islands, and Labra-
dor. By the new treaty this right was limited to the western
part of the South Coast of Newfoundland and the coast of
Labrador eastward of Mount Joli.2
Under the Treaty of 1783 Americans were entitled to take
fish in the marginal waters of all the British coasts, but the
Treaty of 1818 limited this right to that portion of the South
Coast of Newfoundland, where Americans could use the strand,
to the entire West Coast of that island, to the shores of the
Magdalen Islands and to that part of the Labrador, upon which
drying and curing privileges were granted.
The changes, as to the localities in which the rights of tak-
ing, drying, and curing fish were to be enjoyed by inhabitants of
the United States, were due to the different conditions which
prevailed along the British colonial coasts in 1783 and i818.
When the first treaty was signed, Nova Scotia had a small
scattered population but little affected by the participation of
the Americans in their coast fisheries. In I818 the province was
growing rapidly, ports and villages had sprung up in many of
the numerous harbors which indented its coasts, and the inhabi-
tants of these settlements had come to a realization of the com-
mercial importance of their local fisheries and were jealous of
the constantly increasing number of vessels from New England
which frequented the inland waters of the province.