“ In Great Britain the right of fishing within the territorial seas and navigable streams belongs prima facie to all British subjects. If any person claims an exclusive right in such waters the burden of proof is upon him to establish that right, by royal or Parliamentary grant, or prescription. In this country the same presumption obtains in favor of public fishing in territorial seas and navigable waters, but it is the State and not the National Government which ordinarily possesses the power of granting or regulating this right. ”

“ Between the United States and Great Britain the existing laws represent a working compromise, whose history runs back to 1783. In that year the Treaty of Paris, which acknowledged the independence of the United States, provided that American fishermen should continue to enjoy the right to fish in the waters of the British possessions in America, but forbade them to dry or cure fish on the coast of Newfoundland and in settled bays, harbors, and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, unless by previous agreement with the inhabitants or possessors thereof. ”

“ International fishing laws are mostly regulated by convention, and the course of their development has largely depended upon the outcome of political disputes. This is especially true of the fishing laws fixed by treaty between the United States and Great Britain, and between Great Britain and France, in Newfoundland and North American waters. ”