42 
“ Bullfrog” sent to the manager of the factory at Port Saunders 
a letter so remarkable that we quote it here in full :— 
“* Buntrrog, at Port SAuNDERS, 
* 24th September, 1887. 
“ Having received from Captain Humann, Senior French Naval 
“ Officer, Newfoundland, a notification to the effect that the 
“fishing station of Keppel Island and Port Saunders has been 
“allotted next year to one of their ships, and that the factory 
“you work in Port Saunders will interfere very much with their 
“fishing if carried on as at present, I have to inform you that 
“you will continue working your factory next season at great 
“risk, for on any reasonable complaint on the part of the French 
‘of your operations interfering with the full enjoyment of het 
* fishing rights, your factory will be suppressed. 
(Signed) “J. MASTERMAN, 
** Tieutenant and Commander. 
“Mr. Shearer, Port Saunders.” 
The object of the French commander in notifying the com- 
mander of the “ Bullfrog” that French fishermen would use Port 
Saunders was unmistakably to hamper the operations of the 
factory, and, therefore, the British commander should have resisted 
instead of abetting. But he, on the contrary, plainly intimated 
that if any complaints were made in 1888 by the French he 
would interfere with the factory’s operations. What value can 
be placed even upon the exclusive right of British subjects to 
take and can lobsters if it can be interfered with even upon an 
intimation of the French of their intention to do something or 
other at some future time ? 
In June, 1888, the captain of the British war-ship “ Emerald,” 
who was also the senior officer upon the station, formally notified 
the owners of the Port Saunders factory that they would not be 
allowed to take lobsters within certain limits, because “ com- 
“plaints have been made by certain French captains at Port-au- 
“ Choix, through Captain Humann, chief of the French nayal 
* division in Newfoundland, that lobster trawls set by fishermen on | 
“ certain parts of the coast interfere with their fishing operations.” ) 
Examine this typical incident carefully. - The British captain: 
