HC Deb 28 February 1905 vol 141 cc1484-5
MR. WEIR

I beg to ask the Lord-Advocate whether he is aware that trawlers registered in Norway, but fishing from Grimsby with English fishing masters and crews, have recently been detected fishing within the territorial water of the Dornoch Forth, and will he state whether the fact of the captains of these vessels being Norwegian, though resident all the year round in Grimsby, places them on a different footing to purely British trawlers, and exempts them from prosecution for fishing within territorial waters, unless they are within the three-mile limit.

MR. SCOTT DICKSON

I have had information to the effect stated in the first part of the hon. Member's Question, subject to the qualification that in certain cases the trawlers were fishing outside the three-mile limit. The legal point raised in the latter part of the hon. Member's Question is at present pending in the Scottish Courts, and I must, therefore, refrain from expressing any opinion upon it.

CAPTAIN ELLICE (St. Andrews Burghs)

Will the right hon. Gentleman lay on the Table the correspondences last year between His Majesty"s Government and the representative of Christiania?

MR. SCOTT DICKSON

I must ask for notice of that.