ARGUMENT OF ELIHU KOOT. 1983 



" If ever the Americans are effectually excluded, it may be that 

 the West Coast merchants who engage in the Bank fishery will come 

 to the front; but before killing the goose that laid the golden egg 

 the substitute or successor should have been found." 



Governor MacGregor writes, p. 390 : 



" At the same time it is impossible to conceal from oneself the 

 fact that the people of Bonne Bay and of Bay of Islands are those 

 that are most directly interested in. and dependent on, this particular 

 herring fishery, in which practically no others, except the people 

 of St. George's Bay, participate." 



There were a number of others that I will not detain you upon. 

 Mr. Elder has read to you what Sir James Winter said in a formal 

 public interview regarding this policy as being a policy directed 

 against the interests and against the protests of the fishermen them- 

 selves. Now, here is the explanation of it United States Counter- 

 Case Appendix, p. 446. Sir Robert Bond reads, in his speech to the 

 Newfoundland Legislature, a communication which he has received, 

 dated the 23rd March, 1905, signed by a list of merchants of St. 

 John, and containing this resolution : 



" Resolved, That, in the opinion of the meeting," 



It seems they had had a meeting. 



"it is expedient and highly important that immediate steps should 

 be taken to prohibit American fishermen from obtaining supplies of 

 bait fishes in the harbors or upon the coast of Newfoundland, and 

 that a copy of these resolutions, bearing signatures, be forwarded 

 forthwith to the Right Honourable Sir Robert Bond." 



On the preceding page 445 he quotes the Hon. Edgar Bowring, 

 of the firm of Bowring Brothers, Limited, as follows : 



" The Hon. Edgar Bowring, of the firm of Messrs. Bowring Broth- 

 ers, limited, than whom there is no firm in the colony more largely 

 interested in the fisheries, addressed me a letter in reply, in which the 

 following occurs : 



" ' I have to say that I think it is of paramount importance that 

 the government should take immediate steps to prevent the Americans 

 from obtaining bait supplies.' r 



There are many other places in the record which show that this 

 is a trade policy pursued as against the fishermen's interests, and I 

 beg you to bear in mind that that policy is a policy that cannot be 

 carried out except by both preventing the purchase and preventing 

 the taking of bait fish. Of course, the fishermen do not want us to 

 take fish, but they want to sell them. Of course the great trading 

 firms of Newfoundland do not want our competition with their 

 source of supply. Until the American fishing- vessels came to buy 

 from those poor fellows on the shore, the trading firms of New- 

 foundland had the fishermen in their hands; they could dictate the 

 price, they could give as many gallons of molasses, or as many rub- 



