2104 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



Subsequently, these were sent, and on pp. 587 and 588 may be found 

 communications which straighten out the whole question in accord- 

 ance with Mr. Thornton's assurance. 



On p. 587 is a further letter from Mr. Thornton to Mr. Davis, the 

 Assistant Secretary of State, enclosing a copy of a despatch from 

 the Governor-General of Canada, to whose attention this question 

 raised by Mr. Fish had been brought; and the Governor-General of 

 Canada, it appears on this same p. 587, had sent to Mr. Thornton a 

 report of the Minister of Marine of Canada, and that report appear- 

 on p. 588, together with a report of a committee of the Privy Council 

 of Canada. 



The Minister of Marine says in his report of 28th April, which 

 was thus passed on to Mr. Fish, and which appears on p. 588 : 



" that the wording of the minute of council referred to clearly show.-.. 

 by providing for the prevention of ' illegal encroachment by foreign- 

 ers ' on the inshore fisheries of Canada, that the Canadian Govern- 

 ment never contemplated any interference with rights secured to 

 United States citizens by the treaty in question between the British 

 and American Governments." 



. And towards the foot of that report, on p. 589, he says that the 

 terms 



" in any case they could apply only to those waters within which our 

 1 in-shore fisheries ' are situated, and in which neither American nor 

 other foreign subjects have any legal right to fish." 



So it appears that the broad words of the order in council were 

 inadvertent in extending beyond the carefully limited terms of the 

 treaty under which the order was issued ; and we have here the most 

 explicit and binding assurance to Mr. Fish that the statute and the 

 order in council were both confined or perhaps I should say that 

 the order in council was subject to the same limits that the statute 

 expressed, confining the operation of both to the waters of Canada 

 not included within the grant of fishing rights by the treaty of 1818. 



Then it is, after receiving this assurance, having this question 

 resolved, that Mr. Fish sent to Mr. Boutwell a letter requesting him 

 to issue a circular calling attention to this statute and order, and 

 guarding against penalties respecting inshore fisheries not open to 

 fishermen of the United States under the fishing grant of the treaty 

 of 1818. 



Under that, Mr. Boutwell issued the circular to which I have re- 

 ferred. And it so happened that along about that time there was 

 an amendment passed by the Canadian Parliament to this Act of 

 1868. On the 20th of May, 1870, Mr. Thornton sent a little note to 

 Mr. Fish, which appears on page 589 of the United States Case 



Appendix, saying: 



1273 ' With reference to my note of the 14th ultimo to the Secre- 

 tary of State, in which I forwarded to him a copy of the 



