PERIOD FROM 1854 TO 1871. 141 



Strait of Canso. * * * * 



Vessels required to leave port. — The maimer in which the fishery- 

 laws are now construed and attempted to be enforced by the Domin- 

 ion authorities, if acr[uiesced in would amount to a practical exclusion 

 of our fishing vessels from colonial ports; for, although their right 

 to enter for the purpose of "shelter, repairing damages, purchasmg 

 wood and obtaining water," is guaranteed by solemn treaty, yet, no 

 sooner do they now enter, than, contrary to all former practice, 

 they are required to depart even before it is ascertained for what 

 purpose and under what circumstances they resort thither. 



While authority is given to certain officers, both imperial and 

 Canadian, to seize any American fisliing vessel "found within three 

 marine miles of any of the coasts, bays, creeks, or harbors in Canada," 

 wliich, after examination, "has been found fishing or preparing to 

 fish, or to have been fisliing in British waters," yet nothing in any 

 of the acts respecting the fisheries warrants this summary exclusion of 

 such vessel from port, or proliibits any vessel from entering as well 

 for the purpose of procuring suppHes, as for shelter, repairs, wood 

 and water. On the contrary, the fishery laws themselves, as well 

 as the regulations respecting pilotage, recognize the right of foreign 

 fisliing vessels freely to enter the ports of the British North American 

 provinces. 



The rigorous measures now for the first time adopted, which 

 materially affect the interests of a large class of American citizens 

 engaged in the prosecution of an important branch of industry, 

 while deriving no sanction from the treaty of 1818, or the usages of 

 nations, are rendered still more objectionable from having been 

 undertaken without notice previously given, either by the Canadian 

 minister of marine and fisheries, by the collectors of colonial customs, 

 or by the vice-admiral in command of her Majesty's fleet in the 

 British North American waters." 



On the 29tli of the same month Mr. Fish, then Secretary of State, 

 wrote to the United States Consul General in Canada, calHng for 

 information on another branch of the same question, and stating 

 the position of the United States as follows : 



The present embarrassment is, that while we have reports of 

 several seizures upon grounds as stated by the interested parties, 

 which seem to be in contravention of international law and special 

 treaties relating to the fisheries, these alleged causes of seizure are 

 regarded as pretensions of over-zealous officers of the British navy 

 and the colonial vessels, wliich will, as we hope and are bound in 

 courtesy to expect, be repudiated by the courts before which our 

 vessels are to be brought for adjudication. It is the desire of this 

 Government, nevertheless, that our consular officers should watch the 

 course of proceeding in these cases, and give prompt antl authentic 

 information of any decision wluch may be made in them. In par- 

 ticular if the charge against any American fishing vessel is only 

 that she has been preparing to fish, without actual fishing in the pro- 

 hibited hmits, it is to be made known to the counsel of the owners of 



"Appendix, p. 625-628. 



