ARGUMENT OF SAMUEL J. ELDEB. 1475 



in endeavouring to frustrate the purely temporary measures which 

 H is Majesty s Government consider most likely to lead to a success- 

 ful termination of the negotiations with the United States, they 

 incur a grave responsibility which His Majesty's Government decline 

 to share. His Majesty's Government will endeavour in the future, as 



in f io?o P f S yu defen ? ? h ? cl ? ims of Newfoundland under the treaty 

 of 1818 to the best of their ability, but if the difficulties in their way 

 become increased your Ministers must bear the blame." 



Notwithstanding that situation, the Newfoundland Government 

 proceeded to put its course to the test, and on the 12th November, 

 three days after the cable was received, and eleven days after the 

 Governor's refusal to approve the minutes, the arrest of Crane and 

 Dubois took place, for putting herring on board the " Ralph L. Hall," 

 an American schooner, to which they claimed to be engaged as 

 seamen. 



A rather amusing account of that trial appears in the "Daily 

 News," at pp. 354 to 360. The " Daily News " was evidently an op- 

 position paper, and took some pleasure in pointing out the attitude 

 which the Government and the magistrate who tried the case were in, 

 fining these men 500 dollars for putting bait on board a vessel in 

 effect for hiring on board an American vessel, at the same moment 

 that this same magistrate was charging an American millionaire 

 concerning which somewhat maligned body of our citizens remarks 

 have been made 30 dollars for deliberately having gone into the 

 woods and shot game, moose, and caribou, I think, for a very consid- 

 erable period of time; the magistrate travelling down the railroad 

 track for the purpose of collecting the 30 dollars from the American 

 millionaire at the moment of fining these poor fishermen this large 

 amount of money. As to the questions of law which were tried, I 

 will submit observations later, in the proper order of time. 



Captain Anstruther, of His Majesty's service, was on the coast at 

 this time, having been delegated by the British Government to go to 

 the Bay of Islands and to assist in placating the situation, and in 

 preserving peace; he has made a number of reports which, it seems 

 to me, are most instructive of the situation at that time. I wish to 

 read just a word on p. 362 of the American Counter-Case Appendix, 

 from his report to the Admiralty. He was the senior naval officer 

 on the Newfoundland station. On p. 362, in the middle of the 5th 

 paragraph, speaking of the magistrate with whom he had had a talk, 

 he says : 



" He also gave me to understand that the view of the Newfound- 

 land Government is that the Imperial Government had trenched upon 

 the rights of Newfoundland by agreeing, in the Modus Vivendi, that 

 certain portions of the Act of 1905 ' will not be regarded as apply- 

 ing to American fishing vessels,' and that this Public Notice is spe- 

 cially designed to bring matters to an issue. It was further hoped 

 that its publication might prevent any more Newfoundland men 



