The Binding Force of Treaties

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 73, 28 November 1885, Page 4

The Binding Force of Treaties

■'. ♦ - The American correspondent of the Dunedin Star-writes :— The question bf how -long is a treaty binding between nations that are contracting parties has arisen between France and j Great' Britain, with i T eference"to New--1 foundland. Both nations claimed tho right df discovery,' and Doth afo-ihpted . to r. occupy it, until by the treaty, of . jTJtrecht, in 1713, it was ceded outright to Great Britain, with the proviso- that ~ the; subjects of Prance } should be allowed, to" catch fish and; oa.;:n them oh the west side of the i.iand. In the settlement of the wars between 1793 and 1814, the French WLire excluded from altogether. Upon the fall of the great Napoleon anj effort was made to promote an era of good feeling, and y th'er old proviso was restored to tho Treaty, since which time the French ; have exercised the right for all it is | worth. French citizens and French ] fail ilies have spread over all the west •side of the island, pay no taxes, and bear none of the burdens incident to citizenship. They stand square across the way of any national improvement. This British are at the entire expense of - government and of maintaining lighthouse and lifeboat services, yet on the French sideof the island they have no righte thai the French are hound to respect. The British know about as much of the interior of Newfoundland as we do of Alaska. A few sportsmen have penetrated it, and report great wealth in lumher and mineralsl. But the island is like a house which one family owns, but another has the right to occupy.