718 COEKESPOISIDEJNCE, ETC. 



MASSACHUSETTS, Essex, ss : 



GLOUCESTER, November 18, 1880. 



Personally appeared the above-named Joseph Bowie, master, and 

 Charles E. Ferguson, one of the crew, of schooner Victor, and made 

 oath to the truth of the above affidavit. 

 Before me. 



AARON PARSONS, Notary Public. 



Mr. Evarts to Mr. Lowell. 



No. 110.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 



Washington, February 4, 1881. 



SIR: The communication from Her Britannic Majesty's secretary 

 of state for foreign affairs, Lord Granville, of October 27, 1880, re- 

 specting the' disturbance which occurred at Fortune Bay on the 6th 

 of January, 1878, was duly received in your dispatch, No. 81, of 

 October 28, 1880. 



As the separation of the questions raised by that occurrence and 

 the method of their solution were general suggestions on the part of 

 Her Britannic Majesty's Government, I had naturally supposed that 

 this dispatch would have been followed by such definite propositions 

 as this government could either accept or decline, the more so as I 

 had (on June 12, 1880), in reply to your telegraphic report of a con- 

 versation with Lord Granville, authorized you to say that 



" The President will be quite ready to entertain any considerations 

 which may be presented to the Secretary of State to relieve the ques- 

 tion of the fisheries from its present difficulties." 



If, however, as circumstances would seem to indicate, I am to con- 

 sider this communication as a preliminary inquiry from Lord Gran- 

 ville for the purpose of learning whether such suggestion would be so 

 favorably received by this government as to justify the opening of 

 direct negotiation, it becomes my duty to put you in possession of 

 the impressions which this inquiry has made upon the Government 

 of the United States. 



As I understand the purport of Lord Granville's communication, 

 Her Britannic Majesty's Government desires to arrange the compen- 

 sation due the United States fishermen for the disturbances at For- 

 tune Bay, without the formal consideration or decision of any ques- 

 tions of treaty construction which the facts of that disturbance might 

 seem to raise, resting the right of compensation solely upon the 

 unlawful violence exercised by British subjects in Newfoundland. 



The facts in this case are not complicated, and the calculations are 

 simple. The United States Government does not see in its present 

 condition or character sufficient grounds to require any very elaborate 

 method of decision, such as a commission, or the necessity for any 

 protracted inquiry. If Her Britannic Majesty's Government will 

 propose the submission of the computation of damages to the sum- 

 mary award of the Secretary of State of the United States and Her 

 Britannic Majesty's representative at Washington (this function to 

 be exercised either directly or by such delegation as may seem to them 



