BRITISH, COLONIAL AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 415 



The other papers presented to the United States Senate by Senator 

 Lodge on behalf of the New England fishermen scarcely merit criti- 

 cism. They consist of extracts from newspapers published under a 

 wrong impression prior to the publication of the 1902 treaty. It is 

 perhaps worthy of notice, however, that the paper marked No. 2, 

 signed by a Mr. Nickerson, alleges that " if the Hay-Bond Treaty is 

 ratified one of the consequences that will ensue is that vessels from 

 Nova Scotia will go to Newfoundland and register, and that thus the 

 products of the Nova Scotia fisheries would find admission into the 

 United States free, through the Newfoundland Convention." 



The absurdity of this statement will be apparent on reference to 

 the second and third articles of the Hay-Bond Treaty. Article II of 

 that treaty stipulates that the fishery products to be admitted into the 

 United States shall be " the products of the fisheries carried on by the 

 fishermen of Newfoundland ; " and Article III stipulates that " the 

 officer of customs at the Newfoundland port where the vessel clears 

 shall give to the master of the vessel a sworn certificate that the fish 

 shipped were the products of the fisheries carried on by the fishermen 

 of Newfoundland, which certificate shall be countersigned by the 

 consul or consular agent of the United States." 



At the time of the drawing up of the Hay-Bond Treaty I had in 

 view the possibility which Mr. Nickerson regards as a certainty, and 

 I caused the insertion of the articles to which I have referred in order 

 to prevent any question arising in connection with Canadian fish, and 

 a possibility of the evasion of the true intent and meaning of the 

 treaty. 



Another paper put in was signed by J. Donahue, F. E. Libby, and 

 other New England fish dealers, who took up the position that our 

 people were dependent upon the Americans coming to our shores to 

 buy bait; that there was no danger of the withdrawal of bait privi- 

 leges by the government of Newfoundland, inasmuch as a large num- 

 ber of the* people of this colony were dependent upon the dollars that 

 the Americans left here in return for the supply of bait fishes ; and I 

 have observed that a certain section of the press of New England has 

 referred to the people of this colony as paupers, and to our fishery 

 products as " pauper fish." The challenge has been thrown out by 

 that press that the legislature of this colony dare not interfere or at- 

 tempt to restrict our people in the supply of bait fishes to the Ameri- 

 can fishing fleet. 



Another position which has been taken, not only by individual 

 vessel owners of Gloucester, but also has been advocated by a large 

 and influential section of the American press, is that the ratification 

 of the Hay-Bond Treaty will cause the displacement of American 

 fish in American markets; that it will mean the destruction of the 

 fisheries of New England, which, it is contended, is the nursery of 

 the American Navy. It would amuse the House if I were to lay 

 before them the special paper which was forwarded by the fishing 

 interests of New England to the United States Senate on this point. 

 It would be amusing in view of the facts that are revealed by the 

 registers of shipping and other public records. It is only necessary 

 to have reference to those records to be convinced of the fact that 

 out of 8,000 fishermen who man the fishing fleets of New England 

 some 4,000 are Newfoundlanders, about 1,500 are of American birth, 

 and the balance consists of Nova Scotians, New Brunswickers, Portu- 



