2066 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



administration of His Majesty's dominions, you appeared to appre- 

 hend that neither of the propositions which I had had the honor to 

 make to you upon this subject would be considered as affording in 

 a sufficient degree the advantages which were deemed requisite." 



I ask you to observe that phrase 



" such accommodation .... as may be consistent with the proper 

 administration of His Majesty's dominions." 



And you will see, as we go on with this correspondence, that what 

 dwelt in the minds of the British negotiators was that it wa.s not con- 

 sistent with proper administration and control on the part of His 

 Majesty's Government to have the United States granted access to 

 these coasts. It was an interference with due administration ; and so 

 they proposed to shove them off to the coast of Labrador, where 

 there was not anybody but cod-fish and whales and icebergs or this 

 little strip of the south coast of Newfoundland. 



Over on the next page, 290, Mr. Bagot goes on to say : 



" It is not necessary for me to advert to the discussion which has 

 taken place between Earl Bathurst and Mr. Adams. In the corre- 

 spondence which has passed between them, you will have already 

 seen, in the notes of the former, a full exposition of the grounds upon 

 which the liberty of drying and fishing within the British limits, as 

 granted to the citizens of the United States by the treaty of 1783, 

 was considered to have ceased with the war, and not to have been 

 revived by the late treaty of peace. 



" You will also have seen therein detailed the serious considera- 

 tions affecting not only the prosperity oithe British fishery, but the 

 general interests of the British dominions, in matters of revenue as 

 well as government, which made it incumbent upon His Majesty's 

 Government to oppose the renewal of so extensive and injurious a 

 concession, within the British sovereignty, to a foreign state, founded 

 upon no principle of reciprocity or adequate compensation what- 

 ever." 



Then, towards the foot of that page, he refers to his offer of the 

 coast of Labrador; and then he refers to an alternative offer that he 

 had made of the south coast of Newfoundland from Cape Kay to 

 Ramea Islands this same one which is now included in the treaty, 

 as an alternative to the Labrador coast either one or the other. 

 And he goes on to say in the last paragraph of this letter: 



" The advantages of this portion of coast are accurately known to 

 the British Government; and, in consenting to assign it to the uses 

 of the American fishermen, it was certainly conceived that an accom- 

 modation was afforded as ample as it was possible to concede, with- 

 out abandoning that control within the entire of His Majesty's own 

 harbors and coasts whirh the essential interests of His Majesty's 

 dominions required" 



You will see there carried on the idea that the admission of Ameri- 

 cans was an interference with administration and an abandonment 



