434 MISCELLANEOUS 



carried out because the British law would not permit it. The act of 

 1893 gave the right to issue licenses for bait to the Americans. It 

 said all you have to do is get a license and pay $1.50 per ton and we 

 will not interfere, and this could be done without the danger of being 

 brought before a magistrate. He believed the American govern- 

 ment would not consent to this act. Our portion would be a mere 

 squib, which would do all the harm and have no good effect. It 

 was plainly a bill of retaliation, and not the adoption of a permanent 

 policy. If he, the Premier, started in a more dignified way in the 

 matter, if he had said our bait is our own, we want it, and we will not 

 allow you to have it at all, the measure would be all right, and there 

 would be a possibility of negotiating a treaty with the Americans. 

 But they would not understand this measure. They would not 

 appreciate the bargain or realize the generosity extended in the past. 

 This measure only tried to force a treaty which generous treatment 

 for the past fifteen years had failed to do. The Premier had ad- 

 mitted failure, and now he was going to deny privileges which had 

 been extended gratis for 15 years, hoping that in the end they might 

 induce the Americans to make a treaty. He did not at all consider 

 it a dignified position. What had the American Legislature done? 

 If they had been friendly, and had become unfriendly, then we were 

 justified in changing our policy. But they had not. They were pur- 

 suing the same course they had always pursued. Theirs was the 

 same policy. They did not give us any blow. They merely did not 

 grant us a free market. But they don't grant free markets to any 

 one else. They say we do what we always did, and what we have a 

 right to do, because it is constitutional. ' The Premier knew that the 

 Senate had only done what was within its constitution, and what was 

 subject to the approval of its people. He knew that ratification was an 

 essential part of the United States law, and he knew that the Senate 

 was the treaty making power solely, therefore the Premier and the 

 government had no reason to change their policy. They were merely 

 punishing the Senate for doing what it had a perfect and legal right 

 to do. The government was saying that " we," the Legislature of 

 Newfoundland, will shake the United States Senate put of her boots 

 for daring not to pass this treaty. This was not a dignified position 

 of policy. The position we should occupy was this: " We want our 

 bait and we will never sell it to you. We must do this to protect 

 ourselves." This position would be perfectly dignified. He ob- 

 jected to the treatj r because it was a measure of retaliation on a people 

 who were friendly to the Empire, and never more friendly than now. 

 Influencing our people against them could only inflame and excite 

 them and make the latter position worse than the first. Because the 

 Government wanted to hit, it wanted to put a sting in the blow, to 

 sting the face of the American fishermen, and if the Premier did not 

 do this he failed to do what he was trying to do. If we adopted the 

 permanent policy they could not hold out, but must come to us for 

 the fish to supply their markets; but this was a policy we dared not 

 embark upon unless we wished the friendly spirit of the nation. He 

 opposed it because the Premier did not ask the house to pass a per- 

 manent bill, but for the purpose of obtaining a ratification of the 

 Bond-Hay Convention was prepared to pass this measure today and 

 repeal it tomorrow. The Premier has said that that was the price of 

 the treaty, and that the Americans could come and take bait as soon as 



