472 MISCELLANEOUS 



Because, while the statute law of this colony (which, until disal- 

 lowed, is the law of the Empire) declared " Thou shalt not," the 

 modus vivendi declared "Thou shalt," and thereby purported to 

 legalize what the law had penalized. Because while the constitution 

 under which we live confers upon this legislature supreme authority 

 within the limits of the colony to provide for the peace, order, and 

 good government thereof, and unreserved powers to determine abso- 

 lutely in regard to all matters of local concern the modus vivendi 

 purported to strip this colony of those powers and to vest them for 

 the time being in His Majesty's Ministers. Because in the year 1865 

 the Imperial Parliament passed an act to remove all doubts as to the 

 validity of colonial laws, the 7th section of which provides that 



"All laws or reputed laws enacted or purporting to have been 

 enacted by the legislatures which have received the assent of Her 

 Majesty in Council, or which have received the assent of the governor 

 of the said colony in the name of and on behalf of Her Majesty, 

 shall be and be deemed to have been valid and effectual from the date 

 of such assent for all purposes whatever." 



Because the British Parliament having thus declared the validity 

 of our laws it alone had the power to suspend, limit, or annul the 

 same. 



On the 6th of October last the Secretary of State for the Colonies 

 announced to this colony by telegraph the conclusion of a modus 

 vivendi with the United States Government and furnished a full text 

 of its terms, which may be summarized as follows, viz : 



1. Permission to the Americans to use purse seines during the en- 

 suing season, the use of which instruments of capture the law of this 

 colony had prohibited and penalized. 



2. Permission to the Americans to ship Newfoundland fishermen 

 outside the 3-mile limit, which by the law of the colony was pro- 

 hibited and penalized. 



3. The undertaking on the part of His Majesty's Ministers not to 

 bring into force the Foreign Fishing Vessels Act of 1906, an act re- 

 garded by the legislature of this colony as essential in order to control 

 the conduct of British fishermen and effectively enforce the provisions 

 of the Bait Act. 



4. An undertaking on the part of His Majesty's Ministers to limit 

 the operation of a law of this colony (the Foreign Fishing Vessels 

 Act, 1905) by the nonenforcement of the first part of section 1 and 

 the whole of section 3. 



In return for these concessions the American Government con- 

 sented 



1. To advise American fishermen to obey the law of this land and 

 " not to fish on Sunday." 



2. To direct that Americans should " comply with the colonial law 

 as to reporting at customs-house and paying light dues when phys- 

 ically possible." 



It is important to note at this point that prior to the year 1905 the 

 Americans had always entered at the customs and paid light dues 

 and had not fished on the treaty coast in contravention of the Sunday 

 law. 



The entirely one-sided nature of the agreement will be thus appar- 

 ent to this House. 



A few years ago President Roosevelt, whose high ideals of public 

 and private duty and service have won for him the admiration of the 



