APPENDICES TO OKAL ARGUMENTS. 2295 



portations. It is still the opinion of this Government that the pos- 

 session of our market is of vital importance to the maritime provinces, 

 and such possession a formidable menace, if not a fatal wound, to 

 our own fishing interests. I do not think that I misunderstand or 

 misrepresent those interests when I say that, standing as we now do, 

 midway in the treaty period, it would be better for those interests 

 to surrender the enjoyment of the fishing privilege of article 18 for 

 the remaining six years of the twelve, upon a resumption by the Gov- 

 ernment of the control of our own market for this unexpired period. 



If Her Majesty's Government and the provincial statesmen are 

 firm in the opinion that the concession of article 18 parts with so 

 much to us, and the concession of article 21 is valueless to British 

 and provincial interests, it may be well worth while for the two 

 Governments to consider whether a mutual resumption of these ex- 

 changed interests may not be desirable. In the future, as in the past, 

 this Government will go very far in concessions to remove occasions 

 of strife between the fishermen of the two nations! But these con- 

 tributions to goodwill, as I have before insisted, are not to be con- 

 founded with pecuniary tribute on one side or the other. 



It was in this spirit that the free importation of coal, salt, and 

 lumber, which was in debate as a measure of wholly domestic interest 

 to ourselves, but with divided opinions, was proposed to the British 

 Government for reciprocal arrangements in respect of these articles 

 to be incorporated in the Treaty of Washington. The proposal was 

 rejected by the British Government and the provincial interests, 

 doubtless upon a measuring cast as to whether this reciprocity carried 

 more benefit or injury to provincial interests, and what we thought 

 an appreciably greater advantage to the provinces than to ourselves, 

 was rejected as unimportant to them. The contrast between this 

 indifference to a free market for coal, salt, and lumber, and the in- 

 exorable demand for a free market for fish and fish-oil, speaks 

 volumes for the pecuniary value of this latter to provincial interests. 



Her Majesty's Government, it may reasonably be assumed, has 

 given to this award of the concurring Commissioners its careful at- 

 tention, and subjected it, in the light of the diplomatic negotiations 

 which established the Halifax Commission, and the evidence before 

 that Commission, to a comparison with the authority imparted by the 

 treaty, to determine whether it conforms to that authority and is 

 valid, or transcends that authority, and, for that reason, is void. 

 Whatever opinion Her Majesty's Government may have formed on 

 this point has not, so far as this Government is aware, been made 

 public at home, and has not been communicated to this Government. 

 In inviting a full exposition of the views of Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment upon the matter, as now brought into consideration be- 

 1387 tween the two Governments, you will say to Lord Salisbury 

 that, wholly unsupportable as the pecuniary measure of the 

 single and fragmentary matter, not embraced in the diplomatic con- 

 currence of the High Commissioners, and thus left by them to impar- 

 tial appraisement seems to this Government, it will receive and ex- 

 amine with entire candour any opposing views in maintenance of the 

 validity of the award which Her Majesty's Government may present. 

 If, as I shall not cease to anticipate, Her Majesty's Government shall 

 agree that the subject submitted to the Halifax Commission has not 

 been adequately disposed of by the concurring Commissioners, the 



