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BAIT AND BOUNTIES. 
We anticipate the reply which will at once be evoked by a_ 
proposal to terminate, upon whatever terms as to equivalents, 
the French rights under the treaties. We expect that as a 
condition of such an arrangement the French would require an 
assurance that they would be secured in the right to purchase bait j 
from Newfoundland for their Bank fishery. We do not assume 
to act as plenipotentiaries negotiating a treaty, but we can speak — 
with confidence as to the position which would be taken by the 
people of the colony upon this point. Stated in plain terms, it j 
would be to the following effect :— | 
“ The prohibition of the supply of bait to the French was a 
“ policy which was forced upon us as a measure of self-preserva-_ 
“tion. It became absolutely necessary in order to avert the ~ 
“¢ commercial ruin which was surely and rapidly coming upon the | 
“ colony from the operation of the enormous bounties given by 
“the French nation upon French-caught fish exported into 
“markets formerly supplied by Newfoundland. If the necessity 7 
“of this policy for self-preservation were removed by the dis- — 
“continuance of the causes which created that necessity—viz., 
“by the removal of the bounties, or by their permanent d 
“ reduction to such an amount as would put the Newfoundlanders — 
“and the French upon fair terms as competitors for the sale of | 
“their fish—then the restrictions upon the supply of bait to the | 
“French would no longer be necessary, and would be removed. © 
“‘ In other words, the Bait Act is the result of the bounties and — 
‘‘ inseparably connected with them; and the matter cannot — 
** possibly be dealt with, for any practical purposes, etry upon — 
“a basis which recognises this as a fundamental principle.” . 
It is to be understood that we do not urge the abolition of © 
the bounties as necessary to a solution of the “ French shore” — 
difficulties upon the proposed basis, viz., a termination of French 
rights under the treaties. We are only urging a solution of — 
those difficulties, and particularly as the subject for Imperial 
initiative. We separate from the “ question” arising out of the 
treaties the other questions of bounties and bait, the connection A 
of which with that of the treaties, though important, is but \g 
incidental. If a solution of the “ French shore” difficulties can 
be arrived at without reference to these questions of bounties © 
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