BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 345 



Colonial House on the one side, and the claims of the Americans on 

 the other side, placed the British Government in an extremely awk- 

 ward position. 



" It is understood that negotiations between the two Governments 

 have been going on for a year, and I gather from the Newfoundland 

 newspapers that they were being carried on with the full knowledge 

 and consent of the Colonial Government. 



"WAS GOVERNMENT CONSULTED? 



"When the British Government came to the point that it must 

 either fall out with the United States Government or abandon the 

 Colonial legislation, it is probable that they asked the Colonial Gov- 

 ernment to withdraw from its attitude on the question. To over- 

 ride the legislation of the Colony without giving the Government an 

 opportunity to state its views or make modifications, would be an 

 outrage. I cannot conceive it possible that such an outrage has been 

 committed. Reading between the lines, I am forced to the conclu- 

 sion that the Government of Newfoundland A\ consulted, that it 

 refused positively to modify its coarse, and that me British Govern- 

 ment was thus forced to either make a modus vivendi with the United 

 States Government or to quarrel with that Government. 



"In my opinion, the modus vivendi will afford opportunity for 

 a better solution of the difficulty than could otherwise be the case. 

 The mere fact of making it is not objectionable, provided it was not 

 made without due time for consideraton by the Colonial Government. 



" Personally, I consider the whole difficulty to have arisen through 

 the Government's unnecessary, and, I think, unwarrantable inter- 

 ference with conditions long in vogue in carrying on the fall and 

 winter fishing. I am in entire accord with the policy of preventing 

 Americans obtaining bait fishing of any kind in those portions of the 

 waters of Newfoundland, if they have no Treaty rights. But this has 

 nothing to do with the fisheries concerned in the modus vivendi. 



" It should be borne in mind that if the present Government of 

 Newfoundland found itself in a position where it had to abandon a 

 policy which it had deliberately taken up and exploited, there are 

 political reasons why it should prefer to have the abandonment 

 apparently forced upon it by the British Government rather than 

 voluntarily back down. I don't think any hasty expressions of anger 

 at the British Government are justified at present. I am prepared 

 to suspend judgment till I know to what extent the Colonial Gov- 

 ernment was apprised in advance of the intentions of the British 

 Government." 



TORONTO, October 10, 1906. 



Governor MacGregor to Lord Elgin. 



GOVERNMENT HOUSE, 

 St. John's, October 24, 1906. 



(Received November 14, 1906.) 



MY LORD: I have the honour to forward herewith copy of a peti- 

 tion I have received through Mr. M. P. Gibbs, Mayor of St. John's, 

 formerly a representative in the House of Assembly of the constitu- 



