434 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



people. It looked too much like the cutting off the nose to be revenged on the 

 face. The value of articles supplied in this way was very large, and the revenue, 

 as well as the inhabitants, was benefited by it; while the only injury that 

 would be done to the Americans by prohibiting the trade was to oblige them to 

 bring the supplies with them from home, or drive them to Prince Edward's 

 Island, where every facility was readily given them. He had understood that, 

 until the treaty was finally ratified, it was the intention of the Government 

 to prevent American vessels from landing their catch in ports of the Dominion. 

 He much doubted the wisdom of this restriction. It might be all well enough 

 if they were not permitted to do so in Prince Edward's Island. That island 

 lay almost in the centre of the fishing-grounds; and there they were allowed to 

 take all supplies they might require, and land their fish, which was reshipped 

 in American steamers that plied weekly between Charlottetown and Boston. 

 Such action on the part of the government would hardly form any restriction 

 to the Americans while they had Prince Edward's Island open to them, and 

 would only deprive our people of the Strait of Canso of the advantage of 

 storage and harbor attendant on the lauding of cargoes, and our vessels of the 

 benefit of the freighting of them to the United States. 



The condition of things in 1870 appears from the reports of Vice- 

 Admiral Fanshawe, and the other officers in command of the war ves- 

 sels cruisingoff the Canadian coast, for the protection of the fisheries. 

 (Canadian Report of the Department of Marine and Fisheries, 1870, 

 pp. 324, 338, 339, 341, and 349.) Admiral Fanshawe says: 



The strong interest that both the resident British traders and the United 

 States fishermen have in maintaining the trade, would, in my opinion, render 

 its suppression extremely difficult, even were it thought judicious to continue 

 the attempt ; while the combination between these two bodies to evade British 

 law, and the sympathies arising therefrom, must be very undesirable. 



The commander of Her Majesty's gunboat Britomart, in his report 

 on the fisheries of the Bay of Fundy, says : 



The inhabitants on the Nova Scotia coast, from St. Mary's Bay to Cape Sable, 

 I believe, prefer the Americans coming in ; as they are in the habit of selling 

 them stores, bait, and ice, and give them every information as to my move- 

 ments. 



259 Wherever I went, I found the people most anxious whether the Ameri- 

 cans were still going to be allowed to come and purchase the frozen her- 

 rings, if they were not, they had no other market for them, and the duty was so 

 heavy they could not afford to take them into American ports themselves. At 

 the same time, they wished to have the Americans prevented from fishing on 

 their coasts. 



The commander of Her Majesty's ship Plover, in his report from 

 Prince Edward's Island, in the same year, says : 



Every facility is given in the ports of this island to foreigners for obtaining 

 and replenishing their stock of stores and necessaries for fishing. This, if 

 the treaty is intended to be strictly enforced, should not be allowed; as, if it 

 is wished to drive the United States fishermen from these waters, they will 

 then be obliged to return home for supplies. 



H. E. Betts, commander government schooner Ella G. McLean, 

 says : 



I anchored off port Mulgrave and procured wood and water. Here the feeling 

 is very much against the law that prevents the American fishermen procuring 

 supplies, such as bait, barrels, provisions, &c. One house, whose receipts in 

 1864 and 1865 were about $80,000 each year, this year was reduced to $10,000, 

 the principal part of which was " stolen." They advocate the return to the 

 license system, doing away with the twenty-four hours' notice there used to be, 

 and having these schooners to rigidly enforce the law, and to instantly seize 

 any vessel fishing inside the limits without a license. They suggest that the 

 proceeds of the licenses might be used as a set-off against the American duty 

 of $2 a barrel, by dividing it at so much, per barrel amongst our fishermen, as a 

 bounty ; thus putting our fishermen on nearly equal terms with the Americans 

 as regards a market for their fish. 



