DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 835 



The Government of the United States finds assurance of the desire 

 of His Majesty's Government to give reasonable and friendly treat- 

 ment to American fishing rights on the Newfoundland coast in the 

 statement of the Memorandum that the Newfoundland Foreign Fish- 

 ing-Vessels Act is not as clear and explicit as, in the circumstances, it 

 is desirable that it should be. and in the expressed purpose of His 

 Majesty's Government to confer with the Government of Newfound- 

 land with the object of removing any doubts which the Act, in its 

 present form, may suggest as to the power of His Majesty to fulfil 

 his obligation under the Convention of 1818. It is hoped that, upon 

 this Conference, His Majesty's Government will have come to the 

 conclusion, not merely that the seventh section of the Act, which seeks 

 to preserve " the rights and privileges granted by Treaty to the sub- 

 jects of any State in amity with His Majesty," amounts to a prohibi- 

 tion of any " vexatious interference " with the exercise of the Treat}' 

 rights of American fishermen, but that this clause ought to receive 

 the effect of entirely excluding American vessels from the operation 

 of the first and third clauses of the Act relating to searches and 

 seizures and primd facie evidence. Such a construction by His 

 Majesty's Government would wholly meet the difficulty pointed out 

 in my letter of the 19th October, as arising under the first and third 

 sections of the Act. A mere limitation, however, to interference 

 which is not " vexatious," leaving the question as to what is " vexa- 

 tious interference " to be determined by the local officers of Newfound- 

 land, would be very far from meeting the difficulty. 



You will inform His Majesty's Government of these views, and ask 

 for such action as shall prevent any interference upon any ground by 

 the officers of the Newfoundland Government with American fisher- 

 men when they go to exercise their Treaty rights upon the New- 

 foundland coast during the approaching fishing season. 

 I am, &c. 



(Signed) ELJHU ROOT. 



502 No. 24:8. 1906, July 18: Letter from Sir M. Durand to Sir 

 Edward Grey, enclosing extract from " Boston Herald " of 

 July 19, 1906. 



LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS, July 18, 1906. 



SIR, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith copies of cut- 

 tings from newspapers of Boston, Massachusetts, on the subject of 

 the Newfoundland fisheries. According to a letter from Representa- 

 tive Gardner, of Massachusetts, to the Gloucester Board of Trade, 

 the State Department holds that the local regulation prohibiting 

 purse seining is unreasonable as against American fishermen. Mr. 

 Gardner declares that if American fishermen undertake to fish in 

 this manner the State Department will do all in its power to help 

 them and to secure adequate compensation in case of interference. 

 I have, &c. 



(Signed) H. M. DURAND 



