DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 847 



tain conditions exempt either wholly or in part from payment, His 

 Majesty's Government consider that it would be unfair to introduce 

 any discrimination against American vessels in this respect, and it 

 is proposed that the demand for light dues should be waived under 

 the same conditions as in the case of the Newfoundland vessels. 

 509 I venture to express the hope that the temporary arrange- 



ment outlined above will be agreed to by the United States 

 Government. 



I have, &c., E. GREY. 



His Excellency the Honourable WHITELAW REID, 



No. 259. 1907, July 12: Letter from Mr. Whitelaw Reid to Sir 



Edward Grey. 



AMERICAN EMBASSY, 

 London, July 12, 1907. 



SIR, Referring to your letter of June 20th, in relation to the New- 

 foundland Fisheries, I beg to say that while its propositions seemed 

 so much in conflict with our views on the subject that my previous 

 instructions would have enabled me to make an immediate reply, I 

 hastened to lay them before my Government. 



Before communicating the result I desire to acknowledge and re- 

 ciprocate to the full the kindly expressions you have been good 

 enough to use as to the moderation and fairness with which Mr. 

 Root has stated the American side of the case. We have had the 

 same appreciation of your conduct of the discussion, and we share 

 your wish to bring the long-standing controversy on the subject to 

 a satisfactory conclusion without having added anything tending 

 in the slightest degree to embitter it. 



But with the utmost desire to find in your last letter some practi- 

 cal basis for an agreement, we are unable to perceive it. Acquies- 

 ence in your present proposals would seem to us equivalent to yield- 

 ing all the vital questions in dispute, and abandoning our fishing 

 rights on the coast of Newfoundland under the Treaty of 1818. 



Without dwelling on minor points, on which we would certainly 

 make every effort to meet your views, I may briefly say that in our 

 opinion, sustained by the observations of those best qualified to 

 judge, the surrender of the right to hire local fishermen, who eagerly 

 seek to have us employ them, and the surrender at the same time of 

 the use of purse seines and of fishing on Sunday would, under exist- 

 ing circumstances, render the Treaty stipulation worthless to us. 



My Government holds this opinion so strongly that the task of 

 reconciling it with the positions maintained in your letter of June 

 20th seems hopeless. 



In this conviction my Government authorizes me, and I now have 

 the honour, to propose a reference of the pending questions under the 

 Treaty of 1818 to arbitration before the Hague Tribunal. 



We have the greater reason to hope that this solution may be 

 agreeable to you since your Ambassador to the United States recently 

 suggested some form of arbitration, with a temporary modus vivendi 



