DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 467 



as being what this Government will regard as adequate compensa- 

 tion for loss and damage. 



In conclusion, I would not be doing justice to the wishes and opin- 

 ions of the United States Government if I did not express its pro- 

 found regret at the apparent conflict of interests which the exercise 

 of its Treaty privileges appears to have developed. There is no in- 

 tention on the part of this Government that these privileges should 

 be abused, and no desire that their full and free enjoyment should 

 harm the Colonial fishermen. While the differing interests and 

 methods of the shore fishery and the vessel fishery make it impossible 

 that the regulation of the one should be entirely given to the other, 

 yet if the mutual obligations of the Treaty of 1871 are to be main- 

 tained, the United States Government would gladly co-operate with 

 the Government of Her Britannic Majesty in any effort to make 

 those regulations a matter of reciprocal convenience and right, a 

 means of preserving the fisheries at their highest point of produc- 

 tion, and of conciliating a community of interest by a just propor- 

 tion of advantages and profits. 



I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, 



(Signed) WM. M. EVARTS. 



278 No. 171. 1880, April 3 : Despatch from the Marquis of Salis- 

 bury to Mr. Hoppin (United States Minister at London). 



FOREIGN OFFICE, April 3, 1880. 



SIR, In the note which I had the honour to address to you on the 

 12th February last I explained the reason why a certain time has una- 

 voidably elapsed before Her Majesty's Government were in a position 

 to reply to Mr. AVelsh's notes of the 13th August last, in which he 

 preferred, on the part of your Government, a claim for 105,305 dols. 

 2 c. as compensation to some United States' fishermen on account of 

 losses stated to have been sustained by them through certain occur- 

 rences which took place at Fortune Bay, Newfoundland, on the 6th 

 January, 1878. The delay which has arisen has been occasioned by 

 the necessity of instituting a very careful inquiry into the circum- 

 stances of the case, to which, in all its bearings, Her Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment were anxious to give the fullest consideration before coming 

 to a decision. Her Majesty's Government having now completed 

 that inquiry so far as lies within their power, I beg leave to request 

 you to be so good as to communicate to your Government the follow- 

 ing observations in the case. 



In considering whether compensation can properly be demanded 

 and paid in this case, regard must be had to the facts as established, 

 and to the intent and effect of the Articles of the Treaty of Washing- 

 ton and the Convention of 1818 which are applicable to those facts. 



The facts, so far as they are known to Her Majesty's Government, 

 are disclosed by the affidavits contained in the inclosed printed paper, 

 which, for convenience of reference, have been numbered in consecu- 

 tive order. Nos. 1 and 2 were received by Her Majesty's Government 

 from his Excellency the Governor of Newfoundland; Nos. 3 to 10, 

 inclusive, were attached to the Report made by Captain Sulivan, of 

 Her Majesty's ship " Sirius," who was instructed to make an inquiry 



