PERIOD FROM 1871 TO 1905. 657 



the considerations bearing upon that subject, and which furnishes the 

 topic of my recent dispatch. 



In the opinion of this Government, it is essential that we should at 

 once invite the attention of Lord Salisbury to the question of pro- 

 vincial control over the fishermen of the United States in their 

 prosecution of the privilege secured to them by the treaty. So grave 

 a question, in its bearing upon the obligations of this Government 

 under the treaty, makes it necessary that the President should ask 

 from Her Majesty's Government a frank avowal or disavowal of 

 the paramount authority of Provincial legislation to regulate the 

 enjoyment by our people of the inshore fishery, which seems to be 

 intimated, if not asserted, in Lord Salisbury's note. 



Before the receipt of a reply from Her Majesty's Government, it 

 would be premature to consider what should be the course of this 

 Government should this limitation upon the treaty privileges of the 

 United States be insisted upon by the British Government as their 

 construction of the treaty. 



You will communicate this dispatch to Lord Salisbury by reading 

 the same to him and leaving with him a copy. 

 I am, sir, etc., 



WM. M. EVARTS. 



The Marquis of Salisbury to Mr. Welsh. 



FOREIGN OFFICE, November 7, 1878. 



SIR: Her Majesty's Government have had under their consideration 

 the dispatch from Mr. Evarts, dated the 28th September, and com- 

 municated to me on the 12th ultimo, respecting the complaints made 

 by the Government of the United States of the injuries sustained by 

 American fishermen in Fortune Bay in January last. 



This dispatch is in reply to my letter of the 23d August, in which 

 I forwarded a copy of the report furnished by Captain Sulivan, of 

 Her Majesty's Ship Sirius, on the occurrences in question. Mr. Evarts 

 now remarks that the United States Government have not been put 

 in possession of the depositions which form the basis of that report, 

 and are unable, therefore, to say whether, upon their consideration, 

 the view which the Government of the United States takes of these 

 transactions upon the sworn statements of their own citizens would 

 be at all modified. 



Her Majesty's Government have not had the opportunity of consid- 

 ering the statements in question; but the depositions which accom- 

 panied Captain Sulivan's report, and which I now have the honor to 

 forward, appeared to them, in the absence of other testimony, to be 

 conclusive as regards the facts of the case. 



Apart, however, from the facts, in respect to which there appears 

 to be a material divergence between the evidence collected by the 

 United States Government and that collected by the colonial authori- 

 ties, Mr. Evarts takes exception to my letter of the 23d, on the ground 

 of my statement that the United States fishermen concerned have 



92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 3 3 



