550 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



No. 203. 1886, July 7: Letter from Sir L. S. S. West to the Earl of 



Roseuery. 

 No. 64 Treaty. 

 Confidential. 



WASHINGTON 7. July 1886. 



MY LORD; In the absence of instructions from your Lordship on 

 the present phase of the Fisheries question, and in view of the tenour 

 of Mr. Bayard's notes on the detention of American fishing vessels 

 by the Canadian authorities, I have avoided all conversation with 

 him on the subject. These notes are written in order to establish 

 the contention that the operation of the Treaty of 1818 is virtually 

 suspended by the spirit of subsequent commercial legislation on both 

 sides, and that the action taken by the Canadian authorities under it 

 is therefore unjustifiable. It must be borne in mind, however, that 

 the commercial legislation upon which so much stress has been laid 

 by the opponents in the Senate to the appointment of a Commission 

 may be said to have auspiciously culminated in the reciprocity of 

 1854, which, together with the policy which it inaugurated, was 

 nevertheless denounced by the United States Government, and that 

 all endeavours on the part of the Dominion Government to renew it 

 have failed. The freedom of intercourse, therefore,, which, in so far 

 as the fisheries are concerned, may be said to have been repudiated by 

 Congress by the denunciation of the instruments which established it, 

 can scarcely now be claimed as a right, in view of the repeated decla- 

 rations both in Congress and outside that the fishing interests were 

 content to abide by a Treaty which expressly denies it. It was pre- 

 ferred to return to the Treaty of 1818 sooner than to admit the prin- 

 ciple of " free fish and free fishing," for it was argued that, since 

 the fish had left the Canadian shores, American fishing vessels had no 

 reason for resorting to Canadian waters, and the right of free inter- 

 course for inshore fishing operations was therefore no longer of any 

 value. In dealing with the situation thus created by the Senate for 

 the sole purpose of thwarting the policy of the present Administra- 

 tion, two points at once present themselves which are of importance 

 in the event of any proposal being made on either side for nego- 

 tiation. 



1. The probable refusal of the Dominion Government to suspend 

 action under the Treaty of 1818 pending negotiation. 



2. The probable refusal of the Senate to sanction any agreement 

 come to between Her Majesty's Government and President Cleve- 

 land's present Cabinet. Mr. "Bayard is fully aware of the difficult 

 position in which he has been placed, and it is therefore very likely 

 that he is endeavouring to conciliate the Senate in view of possible 

 negotiation by writing notes in the sense of the speeches of the Maine 

 Senators, and in order thus to be enabled to give satisfactory assur- 

 ances of the disposition of that bod} 7 to agree to an arrangement 

 which could scarcely be reached without some such understanding, 

 for he is aware that Her Majesty's Government would not be disposed 

 to enter into engagements which the Senate might again refuse to 

 allow the President to carry out. He feels also that Her Majesty's 

 Government can only look to the United States Government and not 

 to the circumstances in which he has been placed, and he is evident!}' 

 now seeking means of escape from his dilemma. That such is 



