ARGUMENT OF SAMUEL, J. ELDEB. 1489 



At the third paragraph on p. 1008 : 



" In this conviction my Government authorizes me, and I now have 

 the honour, to propose a reference of the pending questions under the 

 Treaty of 1818 to arbitration before the Hague Tribunal. 



"We have the greater reason to hope that this solution may be 

 agreeable to you since your Ambassador to the United States recently 

 suggested some form of arbitration, with a temporary modus vivendi 

 pending the decision, as the best way of reaching a settlement. We 

 hope also that the reference of such a long-standing question between 

 two such nations at such a time to the Hague Tribunal might prove 

 an important step in promoting the spread of this peaceful and 

 friendly method of adjusting differences among all civilised countries 

 of the world." 



Mr. Reid says, with regard to the employment of Newfoundlanders 

 in the next paragraph, and speaking of the previous season : 



" They did, however, employ Newfoundland fishermen. We do not 

 think the continued employment of men so eager for the work, and 

 the consequent influx of their wages into the colony could, for the 

 short time involved, work the Colony any harm." 



900 On the 19th July, 1907 (United States Case Appendix, p. 

 1008), Lord Elgin transmits to Governor MacGregor the pro- 

 posal of the United States for the modus of 1907. It was substan- 

 tially on the same terms as that of the previous year. 



I am not going into the avalanche of correspondence by wire and 

 mail which followed after that time, the 19th July, or the time of the 

 reception of that letter. Fifteen despatches passed between Lord 

 Elgin and Governor MacGregor ; the latter reporting the position of 

 his Ministers with regard to it, and protesting against the power and 

 right of the British Government to interfere with Newfoundland 

 laws, and offering to take responsibility upon themselves, offering to 

 enforce the laws only against their own inhabitants, and not against 

 the inhabitants of the United States. 



That correspondence between the reception of the letter of the 19th 

 July and the 9th September, is to be found in United States Case Ap- 

 pendix, pp. 1010 to 1018, and in the Counter-Case Appendix, p. 297. 



I was unable on Tuesday, at the moment, to put my han,d on a 

 despatch I wanted to read. 



It will be remembered that the modus was finally agreed upon by 

 Great Britain, without the consent of Newfoundland, namely, on the 

 4th September and the 6th September, by notes between the British 

 Foreign Office and Mr. Reid in London, as appears at United States 

 Case Appendix, p. 49. But, just before that, and during the long 

 discussion between the Home and Colonial Governments, there was 

 an effort to bring about an adjustment between Sir Robert Bond 

 and the Government, 



