DESPATCHES, KEPOETS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 827 



Government will readily admit that the fears expressed on this head 

 in Mr. Root's note have not been realized. 



They desire, however, to point out that, though the Act in ques- 

 tion was passed to give effect to the decision of the Colonial Govern- 

 ment to withdraw from American fishing- vessels the privileges which 

 they had been allowed to enjoy for many years previously of pur- 

 chasing bait and supplies and of engaging crews in the ports of the 

 Colony, the provisions objectionable to the United States' Govern- 

 ment which it embodies are in no sense new. They will be found in 

 " The Foreign Fishing- Vessels Act, 1893." The present Act differs 

 from the earlier Act in that it takes away, by omission, from the 

 Colonial Government the power conferred upon them by the earlier 

 Act of authorizing the issue of licences to foreign fishing-vessels for 

 the enjoyment of the privileges mentioned. Allowing for this 

 change, the provisions of the two Acts are in all essential respects 

 identical. The provisions as to boarding, bringing into port, and 

 searching appear in both Acts, and also the provisions as to the pos- 

 session of bait, outfits, and supplies being primd facie evidence of the 

 purchase of the same in the Colonial jurisdiction, except that in the 

 earlier Act there was a further provision, consequential on the au- 

 thority which it conferred on the Colonial Government to issue 

 licences, directing that the failure or refusal to produce a licence 

 should be primd facie evidence of the purchase of such articles with- 

 out a licence. The position of any American fishing- vessel choosing 

 to fish for herself on the Treaty Coast has consequently been since 

 1893 the same as it is to-day. His Majesty's Government do not 

 advance these considerations with the object of suggesting that the 

 objections which the United States' Government have taken to sec- 

 tions 1 and 3 of the Foreign Fishing- Vessels Act are impaired by the 

 fact that these provisions have been on the Statute Book of the 

 Colony since 1893 without protest, and they are ready to assume that 

 no such protest has been lodged merely because the privileges ac- 

 corded to American vessels in the ports of the Colony up to the 

 present have been such as to render it unnecessary for inhabitants 

 of the United States to avail themselves of their right of fishing 

 under the Convention of 1818. The object of His Majesty's Govern- 

 ment is simply to remove any impression which may have formed 

 itself in the mind of the United States' Government that the language 

 of the Act of 1905 was selected with any special view of prejudicing 

 the exercise of the American Treaty right of fishery, and to point 

 out that, on the contrary, it dates back to 1893, that is, to a time 

 when it was the policy of the Colonial Government to treat Ameri- 

 can vessels on a favoured footing. 



A new Act was not necessary to give effect to the present policy of 

 the Colonial Government. Effect to it could have been given under 

 the Act of 1893 by the mere suspension of the issue of licences to 

 American vessels, and the only object of the new Act, as His 

 Majesty's Government understand the position, was to secure the 

 express and formal approval of the Colonial Legislature for the carry- 

 ing out of the policy of the Colonial Government. 



Having offered these general remarks, His Majesty's Government 

 desire to point out that, in discussing the general effects of "The 

 Foreign Fishing- Vessels Act, 1905," on the American fishery under 

 the Convention of 1818, the United States' Government confine them- 



