BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 311 



for working and shipping purposes in these harbours. Such erec- 

 tions could not interfere with or incommode the fishing operations 

 of the French. The sites to be determined by the British and French 

 Commanders of cruizers on the coast. 



Article XVII appears to be objectionable on the ground that it 

 would operate as a basis for the formation of the permanent settle- 

 ment of a French population on the coast. The guardians indicated 

 should be limited to one French guardian and his family for each 

 harbour, for the purpose of taking care of French property during 

 that period of the year when the French, by Treaty, are to be absent 

 from the coast. 



The Council are convinced that the Legislature, as well as the 

 Executive, in entering upon this important question, will be animated 

 by a desire to meet as far as possible the views of Her Majesty's 

 Government regarding a satisfactory settlement, and they believe 

 that the acceptance of the modifications above suggested would tend 

 materially to commend the arrangement to the favourable considera- 

 tion of both Houses. 



The Council regret that under present circumstances the holding 

 of a Session of the Legislature before the usual period of the year 

 would be attended with such difficulties and inconveniences that they 

 are obliged to deem it inexpedient, and feel unable to meet the 

 desire of Her Majesty's Government in relation to this matter. 



(Signed) E. D. SHEA, 



Clerk, Executive Council. 



Governor Sir G. Des Vcevx to Earl Granville. 



GOVERNMENT HOUSE, 

 Newfoundland, April 27, 1886. 



MY LORD : I have the honour to inform your Lordship that a meet- 

 ing of the Executive Council was held here yesterday, Mr. Pennell 

 being present, at which I brought under notice the subject of the 

 recent Arrangement between the Governments of England and France 

 with reference to the fisheries of the Colony. 



2. By way of introduction to the discussion which ensued, I gave a 

 short summary of the circumstances which had led up to the present 

 juncture. I said that Her Majesty's Government, with an anxious 

 desire to settle once and for all a question which may be said to have 

 been pending for more than a century, and which had frequently 

 threatened serious international complications, after doing all that 

 was practicable to ascertain the views of the colonists, and after pro- 

 longed negotiations with the Government of France, had at length 

 concluded a provisional Arrangement with that Power in April 1884. 

 In order to consult the Colonial Government, and with a view to 

 obtain clearly and finally the opinions of those most interested in the 

 details of the arrangements, Her Majesty's Government had subse- 

 quently dispatched to the Colony the two Special Commissioners, who 

 had ably conducted the negotiations on behalf of Great Britain. On 

 the conclusion of their mission here, the then Executive Government 

 of the Colony, by their Minute dated the 15th July, 1884, indicated 



