422 MISCELLANEOUS 



the United States Government for a measure of reciprocal trade be- 

 tween this colony and the United States. 



In the following year it was my privilege to be a delegate to His 

 Majesty's Government, with Sir William White way and the late Mr. 

 Harvey, on the French Shore question, and the opportunity was then 

 availed of to press upon His Majesty's Government the views of the 

 then government of the colony in relation to the desirability of the 

 government's being granted an opportunity to try and bring about 

 a trade convention with the United States on its own behalf, and as 

 distinct from the Dominion of Canada. It was impressed upon His 

 Majesty's Government that the interests of this colony and those of 

 the Canadian Dominion were not identical, and that there were ques- 

 tions operating as between the Dominion of Canada and the United 

 States in which this colony had no concern, and which effectively 

 barred the possibility of successful reciprocal negotiations. 



His Majesty's Government, recognizing the force of the position 

 that was set forth, granted permission to the government of New- 

 foundland to make the attempt on its own behalf, and I was author- 

 ized to proceed to the United States of America to assist Lord 

 Pauncefote in negotiating a trade convention. The result of my 

 labors was entirely successful so far as the making of a treaty was 

 concerned. An agreement was arrived at satisfactory to the gov- 

 ernment of this colony as well as to the Government of the United 

 States, which has passed into history as the Bond-Blaine Convention. 



That convention was upon the lines of the 1888 treaty. It proposed 

 to convey to American fishermen the rights intended to be conveyed 

 by the Bayard-Chamberlain Treaty, in exchange for the free admis- 

 sion of our fishery products and crude copper ores, the product of 

 Newfoundland mines, into the markets of the United States. That 

 convention never was submitted for ratification, being held in abey- 

 ance by His Majesty's Government out of deference to the wishes of 

 the Dominion of Canada. 



Into the motives that prompted the action of the Dominion of 

 Canada and the injustice with which this colony was treated by His 

 Majesty's Government in that connection I do not propose to enter, 

 as the House is only concerned at the present time with a history of 

 the treaties that have been made or attempted to have been made 

 from time to time with the United States of America with respect to 

 the fisheries, and not with the merits of the various proposals. 



The convention of 1890 having failed for the reasons that I have 

 mentioned, in the year 1898 the then government of the colony united 

 with the government of the Dominion of Canada and His Majesty's 

 Government in an attempt to bring about a treaty upon the lines of 

 the Bayard-Chamberlain Treaty of ten years previous. The nego- 

 tiators met, and for some weeks the attempt to arrive at an arrange- 

 ment satisfactory to all parties was continued, but these negotiations 

 also fell through. 



In the year 1902, when in London in connection with the colonial 

 conference, I availed of the opportunity to press the claims of this 

 colony for separate negotiations with the United States a second time 

 upon the attention of the Colonial Office, and succeeded in obtaining 

 permission from His Majesty's Government to proceed to Washing- 

 ton, and was given authority to reopen negotiations with the United 

 States Government for a trade treaty between this colony and the 



