2036 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



That is a specimen of the numerous contentions which are to be 

 found throughout this long historical document, all of which go 

 to the assertion that Great Britain had a right to participate as 



against the French assertion of their right to exclude British 

 1232 subjects. You remember Lord Derby's letter of the 12th June, 



1884, in which he says that the grant of the French rights im- 

 pressed upon the waters of Newfoundland something of the charac- 

 ter of a common sea for the purpose of fishery. In the correspond- 

 ence in 1886 we have a very illuminating exposition of what the real 

 character of the French and English right was considered to be by 

 Great Britain. I refer to the United States Counter-Case Appendix, 

 p. 316, where will be found a letter from Count d'Aubigny to the 

 Earl of Iddesleigh. It is dated 20th September, 1886 : 



" My Lord : A decree of the Newfoundland Government dated the 

 9th August last, has prohibited lobster fishing for three years, from 

 the 30th September next, in Rocky Harbour (Bonne Bay, 'French 

 Shore'). 



"I am instructed to inform your Excellency that, in view of the 

 fishery right conferred on France by the treaties in the part of the 

 island to which the Decree applies, a right which can evidently not 

 be restricted in its exercise, it is impossible for my Government to 

 recognize in any way the validity of the measure taken by the New- 

 foundland authorities." 



On p. 317 we have another from the French Captain LeClerc to 

 Captain Hamond, a British captain, and in the last paragraph, p. 318, 

 Captain LeClerc says: 



" I think it right to let you know that I am giving orders to vessels 

 of my division to take no notice of a Decree which regulates a fishery 

 the enjoyment of which belongs only to France." 



On p. 319 there is a letter from the Governor of Newfoundland to 

 Mr. Stanhope, of the Colonial Office, in which he says : 

 " Sir : In accordance with your instructions,"- 

 This is dated 24th November, 1886. 



"I have communicated to my ministers your despatch of the 30th 

 October, 1886, with reference to the lobster fishery on that part of 

 the coast of Newfoundland where the French have fishing rights. 

 .... Though I have as yet had no communication from my Minis- 

 ters on the subject, I may mention at once that there was never any 

 intention of enforcing this Order against French subjects." 



On the 12th February, 1887, there is a letter, p. 320 of the United 

 States Counter-Case Appendix, in which the Colonial Office of Great 

 Britain, writing to the Foreign Office, says: 



" Count d'Aubigny appears to found his complaint on the fact that 

 the French right of fishery cannot be limited by a Colonial Decree; 

 but the position taken by Captain LeClerc is tantamount to a denial 

 of the right of the Colonial authorities to issue any Decree binding 



