DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 845 



Whatever may be the correct interpretation of the Treaty as to the 

 employment of foreigners generally on board American vessels, His 

 Majesty's Government do not suppose that the United States Govern- 

 ment lay claim to withdraw Newfoundlanders from the jurisdiction 

 of their own Government so as to entitle them to fish in the employ- 

 ment of Americans in violation of New foundland laws. The United 

 States Government do not, His Majesty's Government understand, 

 put their claim higher than that of a " common " fishery, and such 

 an arrangement cannot override the power of the Colonial Legisla- 

 ture to enact laws binding on the inhabitants of the Colony. 

 508 It can hardly be contended that His Majesty's Government 

 have lost their jurisdiction not only over American fishermen 

 fishing in territorial waters of Newfoundland, but also over the Brit- 

 ish subjects working with them. 



It may be as well to mention incidentally in regard to Mr. Root's 

 contention that no claim to place any such restriction on the French 

 right of fishery was ever put forward by Great Britain ; that there was 

 never any occasion to advance it, for the reason that foreigners other 

 than Frenchmen were never employed by French fishing vessels. 



The main question at issue is, however, that of the application of 

 the Newfoundland regulations to American fishermen. In this con- 

 nection the United States Government admit the justice of the view 

 that all regulations and limitations upon the exercise of the right of 

 fishing upon the Newfoundland Coast, which were in existence at the 

 time of the Convention of 1818, would now be binding upon Ameri- 

 can fishermen. Although Mr. Root considers that to be the extreme 

 view which His Majesty's Government could logically assert, and 

 states that it is the utmost to which the United States Government 

 could agree, His Majesty's Government feel that they cannot admit 

 any such contention, as it would involve a complete departure from 

 the position which they have always been advised to adopt as to the 

 real intention and scope of the treaties upon which the American 

 fishing rights depend. On this vital point of principal there does 

 not seem to be any immediate prospect of agreement with United 

 States views, and it would, therefore, seem better to endeavour to 

 find some temporary solution of the difficulty as to the regulations 

 under which the Americans are to fish. 



His Majesty's Government note with satisfaction Mr. Root's state- 

 ment that the American Government are far from desiring that the 

 fishery should go unregulated, and believing as they do that the 

 Newfoundland regulations have been framed with the intention of 

 preserving and maintaining the fishery in the most efficient and 

 productive condition, and for the prevention of practices that must 

 be detrimental to the common interests they . propose to communi- 

 cate a copy of all the regulations that are now in force, and if 

 there is anything in these regulations which the United States Gov- 

 ernment feel to bear hardly upon the American fishermen, His 

 Majesty's Government will gladly pay the utmost consideration to 

 any American representations on the subject with a view to the 

 amendment of the regulations in the sense desired, provided that such 

 be consistent, with the due preservation of the fishery. 



Pending this examination of the regulations, His Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment would propose the following arrangements as to the provi- 

 sions in the Newfoundland enactments that have been most discussed. 



