BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 377 



with the Governor or his ministers, or the people of the Colony, but 

 to protect the treaty to which England was a contracting party. The 

 presence of both on the scene is ample proof of this, a fact apparent 

 to every man. It is true that the Brilliant, in guarding the treaty, 

 was the means, incidentally, of enabling many Newfoundland fisher- 

 men to earn their bread, which would otherwise have been prevented 

 by their own local Government, but the fact remains that the British 

 captain did not in any way exceed his authority, or attempt more 

 than the work for which he was commissioned. At all times Captain 

 Anstruther counselled observance of law on the part of Newfound- 

 landers, and the avoidance of any act calculated to engender strife 

 or trouble. 



The Premier, during his speech quoted with much warmth an idiom 

 of President Roosevelt who declared himself in favour of " the square 

 thing all round." It is along these lines that the foregoing has been 

 suggested, for it is manifestly dishonest and unfair to Captain An- 

 struther, especially in his absence, to credit him with conduct that 

 would be reprehensible if he were guilty, but of which he is certainly 

 innocent. Let us have " the square thing all round " in this Modus 

 Vivendi business. A cause that must be bolstered up by misrepre- 

 sentation and untruth is inherently weak. 



Governor MacGregor to Lord Elgin. 



GOVERNMENT HOUSE, ST. JOHN'S, February 25, 1907. 



(Received March 9, 1907.) 



MY LORD: I have the honour to enclose, for your information, a 

 leading article from The Western Star, a paper published at Bay of 

 Islands, in which the Modus Vivendi is discussed. As this paper 

 must be chiefly dependent on the patronage of the fishermen of that 

 district, the article in question may be presumed to express their 

 general views on the subject. 



I have, &c., WM. MACGREGOR. 



[Inclosure.] 

 [The Western Star, Bay of Islands, February 20, 1907.] 



MODUS VIVENDI SAVED THE SITUATION. 



On Tuesday. 12th instant, Premier Bond, in an exhaustive speech 

 of nearly five hours, moved the adoption, by the Legislature, of an 

 address to the Imperial Government respecting the Modus Vivendi. 

 In his speech, the Premier attempted to throw dust in the eyes of the 

 people so as to divert their attention from his vindictive " jail or 

 starvation " policy, to the action of the British Government in ar- 

 ranging a modus vivendi over the heads of the Colonial Government, 

 whereby our fishermen were enabled to earn a livelihood. In criti- 

 cising the Premier's speech, Captain C. Dawe, leader of the Opposi- 

 tion, and Mr. Morison spoke at length. An open market sounds 

 well, Captain Dawe said. It looks all right to talk of a market of 

 80,000,000 American people, but it should not be forgotten that these 

 people don't want our codfish, they catch nearly all they require 



