BRITISH, COLONIAL, AND OTHER CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 479 



This important memorandum, and the telegraphic despatch of 

 Lord Elgin of date 8th August which referred to it, were taken into 

 consideration by Committee of Council the following day, and a full 

 reply thereto was forwarded to his excellency the governor for trans- 

 mission to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colo- 

 nies that same evening, as follows : 



"AUGUST 15th, 1906. 



" The Committee of Council have had under consideration the tele- 

 gram received by his excellency the governor from the Right Honour- 

 able the Secretary of State for the Colonies of date the 8th instant, 

 together with his despatch, confidential, of the 6th instant, and its 

 enclosure. They observe the contention of the United States Govern- 

 ment and its request to His Majesty's Government ' to prevent any 

 interference upon any grounds by officers of the Newfoundland gov- 

 ernment with American fishermen when they go to exercise their 

 treaty rights upon the Newfoundland coast during the approaching 

 fishery season.' 



Ministers feel that the contention and the request can not but have 

 been regarded by His Majesty's Government as entirely unreasonable, 

 and such as neither His Majesty's Government nor the government 

 of this colony can concur in. 



The contention " that the Convention of 1818 justifies no interfer- 

 ence, reasonable or unreasonable, with the exercise by America of the 

 fisheries " in the waters of Newfoundland is equivalent to a declara- 

 tion that 700 miles of the territorial waters of this colony were by 

 that instrument reserved from British jurisdiction and set apart as 

 an area within which American citizens were exempt from the opera- 

 tion of statute law and free to use an-y fishing implements, no matter 

 how injurious, in the conduct of the fishery. In " the exercise by 

 America of the fisheries " in the waters of this colony there have been 

 in the past very grave violations of statute law, such as murder, as- 

 saults, robberies, and smuggling. The offenders were punished in 

 accordance with the law relating to each particular offence, and this 

 was a reasonable interference to which the United States Govern- 

 ment now appear to take exception. 



If it be stated in explanation that the contention only had reference 

 to the fishery regulations now in force in this colony, ministers would 

 observe that such regulations are as much the statute law as the chap- 

 ters under which the above-recited offences were dealt with, and that 

 they apply to all persons, irrespective of nationality, who operate the 

 fisheries within the territorial waters of the colony. 



These fishery regulations were adopted by the legislature with a 

 view to the preservation and continuance of the fisheries. 



Most of them have been in force for years, and their necessity is 

 made evident by the fact that they have resulted from petitions to 

 the legislature sent in by the fishermen of the colony, who were pre- 

 pared to submit to restrictions and limitations being placed upon 

 their own labor in order to secure a continuance of the industry upon 

 which they solely depended for a livelihood. 



That such fishery regulations or laws have heretofore been regarded 

 by the United States Government as not only reasonable but desirable 

 will appear on perusal of a circular that issued from the Department 

 of State, Washington, to the collector of customs at Boston, dated the 



