DESPATCHES;; REPORTS^ CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 493 



restraints and regulations of the Statutes of Newfoundland, now set up as 

 authority over our fishermen, and from every other regulation now in force, or 

 that may hereafter be enacted by that Government. 



Her Majesty's Government, however, have never accepted that con- 

 struction of the Treaty, and on this point I have nothing to add to 

 the views expressed in the note which I had the honour to address to 

 Mr. Lowell on the 27th October, 1880. 



In that note I used the following language : 



Without entering into any lengthy discussion on this point, I feel bound to 

 state that, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, the clause in the Treaty 

 of Washington which provides that the citizens of the United States shall be 

 entitled, " in common with British subjects," to fish in Newfoundland waters 

 within the limits of British sovereignty means that the American and the 

 British fishermen shall fish in these water upon terms of equality, and not that 

 there shall be an exemption of American fishermen from any reasonable regula- 

 tions to which British fishermen are subject. 



Her Majesty's Government entirely concur in Mr. Marcy's Circular of the 

 28th March, 1856. The principle therein laid down appears to them perfectly 

 sound, and as applicable to the fishery provisions of the Treaty of Washington 

 as to those of the Treaty which Mr. Marcy had in view; they cannot, there- 

 fore, admit the accuracy of the opinion expressed in Mr. Evarts' letter to Mr. 

 Welsh of the 28th September, 1878, " that the fishery rights of the United States 

 conceded by the Treaty of Washington are to be exercised wholly free 

 294 from the restraints and regulations of the Statutes of Newfoundland," if 

 by that opinion anything inconsistent with Mr. Marcy's principle is really 

 intended. Her Majesty's Government, however, fully admit that, if any such 

 local Statutes could be shown to be inconsistent with the express stipulations, 

 or even with the spirit of the Treaty, they would not be within the category of 

 those reasonable regulations by which American (in common with British) 

 fishermen ought to be bound; and they observe, on the other hand, with much 

 satisfaction, that Mr. Evarts, at the close of his letter to Mr. Welsh of the 1st 

 August, 1879, after expressing regret 'at " the conflict of interests which the 

 exercise of the Treaty privileges enjoyed by the United States appears to have 

 developed," expressed himself as follows: 



"There is no intention on the part of this [the United States'] 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 

 maintained, 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 production, and of conciliating a community of interest 

 by- a just proportion of advantages and profits." 



I expressed the satisfaction with which Her Majesty's Government 

 not only recognized in Mr. Evarts' proposal above referred to an indi- 

 cation that their desire to arrive at a friendly and speedy settlement 

 of the controversy was fully reciprocated by the Government of the 

 United States, but also discerned in it the basis of a practical solu- 

 tion of the difficulty; and I assured Mr. Lowell of the readiness of 

 Her Majesty's Government to confer with the Government of the 

 United States respecting the establishment of Eegulations under 

 which the subjects of both parties to the Treaty of Washington should 

 have the full and equal enjoyment of any fishery which, under the 

 Treaty, is to be used in common. 



The Memorandum of the United States' Government, after review- 

 ing certain provisions of the Newfoundland Acts, complains of par- 

 tiality in their enforcement by the magistrates and other officials 

 of the Colony (a complaint which Her Majesty's Government can 

 not admit to be well-founded, and in support of which no facts are 



