612 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



No. 226. 1886, December 28: Letter from Marquis of Lansdowne 

 (Governor-General of Canada] to Mr. Stanhope (British Colonial 

 Secretary}. 



OTTAWA, December 28th, 1886. 



SIR, I have the honour to inform you that I have received from 

 Sir L. West a despatch dated the 22nd inst., enclosing copies of a 

 letter from Mr. Bayard to Mr. Phelps dated 15th November, 1886, 

 and of a memorandum in which is contained the draft of a proposal 

 by Mr. Bayard " for the settlement of all questions in dispute in 

 relation to the fisheries on the north-eastern coasts of British North 

 America." These papers, of which printed copies were sent to me, 

 have, no doubt, been transmitted to you through the Foreign Office. 



2. I have referred Mr. Bayard's letter and the memorandum to 

 my advisers, and I shall as soon as possible lay before you the formal 

 expression of their opinion upon the subject. As, however, many 

 members of my Government are absent from their offices at this 

 season of the year and as some time must necessarily elapse before 

 Mr. Bayard's proposal can be reviewed at length, it is as well that I 

 should without further loss of time make you aware of some of the 

 objections to which it is open, and which will, I have no doubt what- 

 ever, be made to it. 



3. I would, before going further, observe that I have read with 

 satisfaction Mr. Bayard's expression of his hope that advantage will 

 be taken of the period of " comparative serenity " which is likely to 

 prevail during the next few months, in order to arrive at an under- 

 standing which might put an end to any doubts which now exist with 

 regard to the rights and privileges of United States' fishermen in 

 Canadian waters. 



4. I should however be slow to admit that the proceedings taken 

 by the Canadian authorities during the past fishing season deserve 

 to be characterised in the terms applied to them by Mr. Bayard. The 

 reports which I have from time to time had the honour of sending to 

 you have shown that the acts of interference which Mr. Bayard de- 

 scribes as involving the unjust and unfriendly treatment of citizens 

 of the United States were rendered necessary in consequence of the 

 violation by them of the laws to which all vessels resorting to Cana- 

 dian waters are without exception amenable. 



5. My Government does not yield to that of the United States in 

 its desire to reduce within the narrowest limits the occasions for 

 interference with the fishermen of the latter Power and should it 

 prove to be the case that there is no prospect of the establishment 

 of closer and mutually advantageous relations between the two coun- 

 tries either in respect of the fish trade and fishing or of commercial 

 intercourse generally, it will certainly be desirable that steps should 

 be taken to determine beyond dispute the precise limits which divide 

 the waters in which Canadian fishermen have the exclusive right of 

 fishing from those in which that right is common to fishermen of all 

 nations. A proposal for the appointment of a mixed Commission 

 to which this duty should, subject to the concurrence of the Govern- 

 ments of the Powers interested, be entrusted, was, as Mr. Bayard 

 points out, made in the year 1866, by the American Government and 

 formed the subject of negotiations which were eventually superseded 



