The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1959, Blaðsíða 34

32
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Winter 19r>9
Canadian Formula for a
Twelve Mile Fishing Zone
by DUART FARQUHARSON
A most interesting and encouraging
report appeared in the Winnipeg Free
Press of November 19, from its Gen-
eva correspondent Duart Farquharson.
The following is the full text of the
report.
GENEVA: For many months Canada
has been conducting a private diplo-
matic battle with its two closest al-
lies, the United States and the United
Kingdom. The point at issue, fishing
limits and the breadth of territorial
seas, is as old as the history of ships;
and it concerns all the nations of the
world. Now, after centuries of disagree-
ment, a solution based on a Canadian
proposal appears likely to win accept-
ance.
The International Conference on
the Law of the Sea which adjourned
here in the spring of 1958 achieved a
remarkable degree of success. Only
on the measurement of the territorial
seas did the 86 nations present fail to
agree.
The Canadian delegation, led by Mr.
George Drew, our High Commissioner
to the United Kingdom, had intro-
duced a new concept to international
law in proposing that a state be allow-
ed, in addition to a territorial sea of
up to six miles, six further miles in
which it would have control over fish-
ing. This Canadian formula for a 12-
mile contiguous fishing zone won a
majority of the votes cast but failed
to secure the two-thirds majority neces-
sary for adoption.
Canada found herself playing not
so much a Commonwealth, or middle
power role, as that of a coastal state
seeking to obtain recognition of fishing-
rights in off-shore waters which would
exclude the so-called traditional rights
of nations fishing in distant waters.
In other words she was leading the
fight against the claims of the Great
Powers, with the new nations as allies.
With the expectation that the Inter-
national Conference will reconvene
here early next spring, Ottawa has been
pursuing intense diplomatic activity.
In recent months there have been high-
level, secret meetings with both the
United Kingdom and the United
States.
The result to date is confidence
that this time the Canadian proposal
will be accepted. This would mean,
for example, that Canada could at
long last forbid foreign trawlers from
fishing inside our 12-mile limit, in wa-
ters which Canada already does not
allow its own trawlers to fish.
Canadian confidence is based on
three factors.
First, it had already become apparent
by the end of the last conference that
without the Canadian concept of the
contiguous fishing zone there could be
no hope whatever of reaching agree-
ment on territorial limits. The con-
flict between states interested in coast-
al rights with regard to fisheries and
those interested in freedom of the seas
is simply too great.