PERIOD FROM 1871 TO 1905. 713 



free from the restraints and regulations of the statutes of Newfound- 

 land," if by that opinion anything inconsistent with Mr. Marcy's 

 principle is" really intended. Her Majesty's Government, however, 

 fully admit that if any such local statutes could be shown to be in- 

 consistent with the express stipulations, or even with the spirit of 

 the treaty, they would not be within the category of those reasonable 

 regulations by which American (in common with British) fishermen 

 ought to be bound, and they observe, on the other hand, with much 

 satisfaction, that Mr. Evarts, at the close of his letter to Mr. Welsh, 

 of the 1st of -August, 1879, after expressing regret at " the conflict of 

 interests which the exercise of the treaty privileges enjoyed by the 

 United States appears to have developed," expressed himself as 

 follows : 



" There is no intention on the part of this [the United States] 

 government that these privileges should be abused, and no desire that 

 their full and free enjoyment should harm the colonial fishermen. 



" While the differing interests and methods of the shore fishery and 

 the vessel fishery make it impossible that the regulation of the one 

 should be entirely given to the other, yet if the mutual obligations of 

 the treaty of 1871 are to be maintained, the United States Govern- 

 ment would gladly co-operate with the Government of Her Britannic 

 Majesty in any effort to make those regulations a matter of reciprocal 

 convenience and right, a means of preserving the fisheries at their 

 highest point of production, and of conciliating a community of in- 

 terest by a just proportion of advantages and profits." 



Her Majesty's Government do not interpret these expressions in 

 any sense derogatory to the sovereign authority of Great Britain in 

 the territorial waters of Newfoundland, by which only regulations 

 having the force of law within those waters can be made. So regard- 

 ing the proposal, they are pleased not only to recognize in it an indi- 

 cation that the desire of Her Majesty's Government to arrive at a 

 friendly and speedy settlement of this question is fully reciprocated 

 by the Government of the United States, but also to discern in it the 

 basis of a practical settlement of the difficulty, and I have the honor 

 to request that you will inform Mr. Evarts that Her Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment, with a view to avoiding further discussion and future mis- 

 understandings, are quite willing to confer with the Government of 

 the United States respecting the establishment of regulations under 

 which the subjects of both parties to the treaty of Washington shall 

 have the full and equal enjoyment of any fishery which, under that 

 treaty, is to be used in common. The duty of enacting and enforcing 

 such regulations, when agreed upon, would of course rest with the 

 power having the sovereignty of the shore and waters in each case. 



As regards the claim of the United States fishermen to compensa- 

 tion for the injuries and losses which they are alleged to have sus- 

 tained in consequence of the violent obstruction which they encoun- 

 tered from British fishermen at Fortune Bay on the occasion referred 

 to, I have to state that Her Majesty's Government are quite willing 

 that they should be indemnified for any injuries and losses which, 

 upon a joint inquiry, may be found to have been sustained by them, 

 and in respect of which they are reasonably entitled to compensation; 

 but on this point I have to observe that a claim is put forward by 

 them for the loss of fish which had been caught, or which, but for 

 the interference of the British fishermen, might have been caught by 



