The Arbitral Tribunal of the Permanent Court at The Hague,
by its award of the 7th of last September, in the case of the
North Atlahtic Coast Fisheries brought to a dose a controversy,
which in its various phases has been an almost constant source
of vexatious dispute between the United States and Great Britain
for the past seventy years.
A treaty, granting exceptional rights, such as that which this
Tribunal was called upon to consider, is peculiarly susceptible
to different interpretations as the course of time brings new
conditions not contemplated by its negotiators. The relations
of the parties are changed. A liberty, which at the date of the
treaty was considered indispensable, may become worthless, while
one, which was deemed insignificant, may in years assume a
place of vital importance to the beneficiaries under the grant.
This change of conditions and of the value of rights has been
especially true of the liberties acquired by the United States for
its inhabitants under the first afticle of the Treaty of October
20, I818.
("9)
THE NORTH ATLANTIC COAST
For two hundred years after the opening of the 16th century,
when Europeans began to frequent regularly the great fishing
banks near the island of Newfoundland and to use its harbors
for refuge and for obtaining bait, and its shores for curing and
drying codfish, the methods of conducting the fisheries changed
but little. By the close of that century the British and French
had substantially monopolized the industry. In 173 France by
the Treaty of Utrecht acknowledged. British sovereignty over
Newfoundland, which up to that time had been the common
resort of fishermen irrespective of their nationalities. In that
treaty, however, it was agreed that French fishermen might use
the shores of the northern portions of the island for curing and
drying their fish, as they had been accustomed to do for a hundred years. The rights thus secured by France continued until
19o4, when through reciprocal concessions Great Britain obtained their surrender.
During the negotiations of 1782, which brought to an end
the war for American Independence, the commissioners of the
United States insisted upon and obtained certain rights of fishery
and of use of the British American shores in connection therewith, which as British subjects the fishermen of New England
had enjoyed for a century. By the Provisional Articles of Peace,
which in 1783 were included in the Definitive Treaty of Peace,
the shores of practically all the British possessions were open to
Americans for the purpose of drying fish, except those of the
island of Newfoundland, while they were permitted to take fish
in all the coastal waters.
Until the outbreak of the War of 1812 the New England
vessels availed themselves of these privileges. With the renewal
of peaceful relations the B-itish Government took the position
that the war had abrogated the fishery article of the Treaty
of 1783. To this claim the United States entered a vigorous
protest, and a diplomatic controversy followed, which lasted
for three years, until the two Governments finally agreed to submit their differences as to the fisheries to commissioners, who
were to meet in London in 1818 to negoti'te a commercial treaty
in place of one, which would expire by limitation in 1819.
The result of these negotiations was the Treaty of London,