662 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



during the session, as would enable me to give, in reply, a full con- 

 sideration to the dispatch of Lord Salisbury of the date of November 

 7, 1878, in reply to mine to you of 28th September, 1878. 



But other and stronger reasons have also induced me to postpone 

 until now any discussion of the questions arising out of the occur- 

 rences to which these dispatches referred. 



It so happened that the transactions of which certain citizens of 

 the United States complain were brought fully to the attention of the 

 government about the same time at which it became my duty to lay 

 before Her Britannic Majesty's Government the views of the United 

 States Government as to the award then recently made by the Com- 

 mission on the Fisheries, which had just closed its sittings at Halifax. 

 While the character of the complaint and the interests of the citizens 

 of the United States rendered it necessary that the subject should be 

 submitted to the consideration of Her Britannic Majesty's Govern- 

 ment at the earliest possible moment, in order to the prevention of 

 any further and graver misunderstanding and the avoidance of any 

 serious interruption to an important industry, I was exceedingly 

 unwilling that the questions arising under the award and those pro- 

 voked by the occurrences in Newfoundland should be confused with 

 each other, and least of all would I have been willing that the simul- 

 taneous presentment of the views of this Government should be 

 construed as indicating any desire on our part to connect the settle- 

 ment of these complaints with the satisfaction or abrogation of the 

 Halifax award. 



I also deemed it not unadvisable in the interests of such a solution 

 as I am sure is desired by the good sense and good temper of both 

 governments that time should be allowed for the extinguishment of 

 the local irritation both here and in Newfoundland which these 

 transactions seem to have excited, and that another fishing season 

 should more clearly indicate whether the rights to which the citizens 

 of the United States were entitled under the treaty were denied or 

 diminished by the pretensions and acts of the colonial authorities or 

 whether their infraction was accidental and temporary. As soon as 

 the violence to which citizens of the United States had been subjected 

 in Newfoundland was brought to the attention of this department, I 

 instructed you, on 2d March, 1878, to represent the matter to Her 

 Britannic Majesty's Government, and upon such representation you 

 were informed that a prompt investigation would be ordered for the 

 information of that government. 



On August 23, 1878, Lord Salisbury conveyed to you, to be trans- 

 mitted to your Government, the result of that investigation, in the 

 shape of a report from Captain Sulivan, of Her Majesty's ship 

 Sirius. In furnishing you with this report, Lord Salisbury, on behalf 

 of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, said: 



" You will perceive that the report in question appears to demon- 

 strate conclusively that the United States fishermen on this occasion 

 had committed three distinct breaches of the law, and that no vio- 

 lence was used by the Newfoundland fishermen, except in the case of 

 one vessel, whose master refused to comply with the request which was 

 made to him that he should desist from fishing on Sunday in viola- 

 tion of the law of the colony and of the local custom, and who threat- 



