1276 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



Then comes the letter of the Leavitt firm at the top of p. 428 : 



"Difficulties having occurred in relation to our fishing in the Bay 

 of Chaleurs, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Bay of Fundy, and on the coast 

 of Nova Scotia, we request the favor of instructions as to the fact 

 whether any other, or those treaty stipulations of 1783, are now the 

 regulations by which our fishermen are to be governed." 



Then the postscript: 



" We wish an answer for publication to our fishermen, should the 

 Department have no objection to our adopting that course." 



Now, Sirs, the matter is becoming somewhat acute; and if the 

 United States have an opinion upon the interpretation of this treaty, 

 we are going to get it, and get it at once, and for publication. 



If the Tribunal will be kind enough to turn to p. 438, they will find 

 what was done. In the middle of a report by Mr. Vail (who was 

 Acting Secretary of State) to the President, with reference to the 

 seizures that were then being made (at p. 438, a little below the 

 middle), these words occur: 



" The recent cases of seizure constitute the last instance of alleged 

 violation of rights, and the charge is laid to the British account. 

 The attention of this department was first called to the subject by a 

 reference by the Treasury of a letter from B. & J. M. Leavitt, of 

 Boston, asking for information as to the existing treaty stipulations 

 regulating the matter. The inquiry was answered by a reference to 

 the first article of the convention of 1818." 



As I said this morning, I do not think there was a better answer. 

 It is the only one that was given. 



Then, in order that the United States might keep track to some 

 extent of what was going on, it was arranged that Lieutenant Com- 

 manding Paine should go 'out to the fishing grounds. 



JUDGE GRAY: We have not got the answer itself. We have only 

 this reference to it by Mr. Vail. 



MR. EWART: That is all we have, Sir. It was arranged to send 

 Lieutenant Commanding Paine with the " Grampus " out to the fish- 

 ing ground, and I refer in that connection to p. 441, to a letter from 

 Mr. Vail, Acting Secretary of State, to Commodore Chauncey : 



" In consequence of the recent seizures of several American vessels 

 on the coast of Nova Scotia by the British colonial authorities, the 

 President has determined that the schooner Grampus, which he deems 

 sufficient for this service, shall be despatched to the coasts of the 

 British provinces in the neighborhood of the fisheries, under the 

 command of a judicious and competent officer, to be selected by the 

 Secretary of the Navy, and furnished with instructions distinctly 

 setting forth the rights of citizens of the United States under the 

 Treaty with Great Britain of the 20th of October, 1818, and making 

 it his duty to protect them in the enjoyment of those rights, as well 

 as to caution them against any infraction, on their part, of existing 

 conventional stipulations. To enable you to carry these directions 



