388 MISCELLANEOUS 



the interests of the herring fishery hut control of Government expen- 

 ditures, which prompts the utterance. 



It is significant of the widespread unpopularity of the policy that 

 every one of the speakers, on Tuesday night, with one exception, 

 was an active supporter of the Bond administration at the General 

 Election, and for all we know, this question excepted, may be so still. 



The more the policy of the Government is considered in connection 

 with this matter, the more extraordinary their attitude appears. 



Sir Robert Bond has no intention whatever of driving the Ameri- 

 cans away from our fisheries. His sole object is to use them as a 

 bludgeon to compel acquiescence in the policy outlined by the Bond- 

 Hay Treaty, a policy, at its best, of questionable advantage. 



Let that policy once be assented to and, instead of the American? 

 being excluded, Sir Robert Bond will open the gates of all our har- 

 bours and give free bait and free entry to every part of the island. 



There was a very simple way of dealing with this matter, one which 

 was urged long ago, and one which would certainly have been adopted 

 if there was any sincerity in the Government's action and policy. 



If a duty were placed on all herring exported from Newfoundland, 

 corresponding to the amount of duty placed on herring imported into 

 the States, despite the difficulties that might hedge around the col- 

 lection, an equitable arrangement would surely eventuate, and not at 

 the expense of the independence of Newfoundland or the rights of her 

 fishermen. 



Sir Robert Bond's Government claim that their policy is on the 

 principle of the greatest number, principle of the greatest good to the 

 greatest number. Whilst we do not admit the justice of the claim, 

 we accept it for the sake of argument. 



If the greatest good for the greatest number demands the sacrifice 

 of the fishermen of Bay of Islands in the interests of the Colony, 

 then, to carry out Sir Robert Bond's own argument, there is justice 

 in the sacrifice of the Colony in the interests of the Empire, on the 

 same principle of the greatest good for the greatest number. 



The .Government have thus adopted an unsound and dangerous 

 argument, and one that is already coming back against them with 

 terrible force. 



The article which we published the other day from the " Birming- 

 ham Daily Post," the great Chamberlain organ, and one of the papers 

 which Sir Robert Bond has recently been eulogizing in the House, is 

 an illustration of the real feeling which exists amongst the British 

 Press. 



Through this anti-American policy we have been placed in a 

 position which is humiliating to all concerned. 



It is humiliating to our fishermen, as it has transformed them from 

 a position of independence to a position of servitude, and alleged 

 illegal servitude at that. 



It is humiliating to Newfoundland, because it places us in the 

 position of the frog in the fable, or of the dog who idly bayed at the 

 moon. 



It is humiliating to the United States, because rights that have 

 been unchallenged for generations have been wantonly disputed and 

 relationships, mutually satisfactory, have been rent asunder. 



It is humiliating to the Empire, because it is subversive to its 

 dignity, and at the same time endangers the peace of the world; and 



