53 



"There are, according to scientific authority, " great colonies of fisli" 

 on tlie "Newfouudhind Banlcs." These coh)nies resemble the seats of 

 great populations on land. They remain stationary, having a limited 

 range of water in which they live and die. In these great "colonies" 

 it is, according to expert judgment, comparatively easy to explode 

 dynamite or giant powder in such manner as to kill vast quantities of 

 fish and at the same time destroy countless numbers of eggs. Strin- 

 gent laws have been necessary to prevent the taking of fish by tlieuse 

 of dynamite in many of the rivers and lakes of tlie United States. 

 The same mode of fishing could readily be adopted with effect on the 

 more shallow parts of tlie banks, but the destruction of fisli in propor- 

 tion to the catch, says a high authority, might be as great as 10,000 to 1. 

 "Would Her Majesty's Government think that so wicked an act could 

 not be prevented and its perpetrators punished simply because it 

 had been committed outside of the 3-mile linel 



"Why are not the two cases parallel? The Canadian vessels are 

 engaged in the taking of fur seals in a manner that destroys the power of 

 reproduction and insures the extermination of the species. In exter- 

 minating the species an article useful to mankind is totally destroyed 

 in order that temporary and immoral gain may be acquired by a few 

 persons. By the employment of dynamite on the banks it is not prob- 

 able that the total destruction of fish could be accomplished, but a 

 serious diminution of a valuable food for man might assuredly result. 

 Does Her Majesty's Government seriously maintain that the law of 

 nations is ]30werless to prevent such violation of the common rights of 

 man? Are the supporters of justice in all nations to be declared 

 incompetent to prevent wrongs so odious and so destru(;tive? 



"In the judgment of this Government, the law of the sea is not law- 

 lessness. Nor can the law of the sea and the liberty which it confers 

 and which it protects be perverted to justify acts which are immoral in 

 themselves, which inevitably tend to results against the interests and 

 against the welfare of mankind. One step beyond that which Her 

 Majesty's Government has taken in this contention, and piracy finds 

 its justification. The President does not conceive it possible that Her 

 Majesty's Government could, in fact, be less indifferent to these evil 

 results than is the Government of the United States. But he hopes 

 that Her Majesty's Government will, after this frank expression of views, 

 more readily comprehend the position of the Government of the United 

 States touching this serious question. This Government has been ready 



