518 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



The United States Commissioner is of opinion that the advan- 

 tages accruing to Great Britain under the treaty of Washington 

 are greater than the advantages conferred on the United States 

 by said treaty, and he cannot therefore concur in the conclusions 

 announced by his colleagues. 



And the American commissioner deems it his duty to state 

 further that it is questionable whether it is competent for the 

 board to make an award under the treaty except with the unani- 

 mous consent of its members. 



E. H. KELLOGG, 



Commissioner. 



News of the award was received in the United States with 

 astonishment, the feeling being general that the country 

 had been wronged. The sum was grossly excessive. It 

 was estimated that the remission of duties on Canadian fish 

 cost the government about $350,000 yearly, and this added 

 to the sum awarded at Halifax made the total cost of Cana- 

 dian fisheries for twelve years about $10,000,000. The true 

 value of the fisheries of Canada was computed to be worth 

 about $25,000 a year. The Senate committee on foreign 

 affairs chafed under the injustice of the decision, and its 

 members began to consider the suggestion in Mr. Kellogg's 

 dissenting opinion that a majority decision alone was insuffi- 

 cient to bind the United States. A disposition was quite 

 manifest to evade, if possible, the payment of so unreason- 

 able a sum. However, the feeling finally prevailed that it 

 was a debt of honor, and the award was paid. A resolution 

 was immediately taken to abrogate the treaty at the " earliest 

 period consistent with Article 33 " of that instrument. 



The treaty of Washington had gone into effect July 1, 

 1873 ; notice was given at the end of the stipulated ten 

 } r ears, and the treaty articles referring to the fisheries were 

 terminated on July .1, 1885 two years later. Thus the 

 status of the fishery question reverted for the third time 

 to the conditions of the convention of 1818. 



Before the abrogation of the fishery clauses of the treaty 

 of Washington, an incident occurred in Canadian waters 

 i( January 6, 1878), that brought to the attention of the 



