PERIOD FROM 1871 TO 1905. 715 



of the disturbances at Fortune Bay has strengthened the impression of 

 the provincial fishermen that the course of Her Majesty's Government 

 had shown no severe condemnation for the violent methods which have 

 been pursued to defeat a competition which was fairly purchased. 



It is impossible that this condition of things should be looked upon 

 with indifference by either government. The Government of the 

 United States cannot believe that Her Majesty's Government would 

 prefer that the Government of the United States should by the exhibi- 

 tion or exercise of force in the provincial waters maintain the obliga- 

 tions of the treaty of Washington, rather than that by the exercise of 

 the power of the British Government our fishermen should be secured 

 in the use of their treaty rights; and yet, unless some prompt remedy 

 be found, the fishermen of the United States must abandon entirely 

 their fishing rights upon the shores of Newfoundland, or they must 

 enforce their rights by methods which will necessarily threaten, first 

 the local peace, and then the amicable relations of the two countries. 



You will say further that the Government of the United States ear- 

 nestly presses these complaints upon the immediate attention of Her 

 Majesty's Government for that fair and full compensation to which 

 the United States fishermen are entitled for this violent interruption 

 of their lawful industries, and in this connection you will impress 

 upon Her Majesty's Government that the immediate and direct loss of 

 cheap bait cannot be accepted as the measure of damages in these 

 cases. These repeated infractions of treaty obligations have disor- 

 ganized the whole fishing industry which the treaty was intended to 

 protect. No vessel can calculate with certainty whether she will be 

 allowed to catch her own bait or forced to purchase it, and so a whole 

 cruise may be rendered profitless by this denial of the right to procure 

 bait. But independent of this pecuniary advantage, Her Majesty's 

 Government cannot surely deny that this systematic demonstration of 

 violence against citizens of the United States pursuing a lawful in- 

 dustry is in itself cause of serious complaint and fair indemnity. 



You will present these views in your own manner to Lord Granville, 

 but if you find it necessary to impress upon Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment the earnestness of the Government of the United States, you are 

 at liberty to read him this dispatch confidentially, as in the exercise 

 of your own discretion, without express instructions from your gov- 

 ernment to that effect. 



I am, &c., WM. M. EVARTS. 



[Inclosure No. 1.] 



Deposition of John Dago. 



November 18, 1880. 

 (Received February 2, 1881.) 



I, John Dago, master of the American schooner Concord, of 

 Gloucester, Mass.. do, on oath, depose and say that I left Gloucester 

 on the 1st of April, 1880, for a trip to the Grand Banks. Our first 

 baiting was at Freshwater Bay, Newfoundland, buying capelin and 

 ice to the amount of twenty-five dollars. On the 9th of August, 1880, 

 we went into a cove in Conception Bay, called Northard Bay, for 

 squid. I put out four dories and attempted to catch my bait with 

 the squid jigs or hooks used for that purpose. My men went into 



