PERIOD FROM 1871 TO 1905. 721 



shall be exposed to the indignity and loss which have been imposed 

 upon them by these and like occurrences. 



You will intimate courteously, but firmly, to Lord Granville that in 

 accepting what we understand to be the proposition of Her Majesty's 

 Government, it is understood as carrying the idea that the settlement 

 suggested will be put in course of immediate execution, and that the 

 determination of the amount of compensation will not be formally 

 confined by any limitation arising from any construction of the treaty 

 which may be matter of difference between the two governments. 



So useful to the great interests involved do I regard the prompt 

 settlement of this incident in our fishery relations, that I should be 

 glad to hear by telegraph that Lord Granville concurs in the simple 

 form of award which I have proposed. 



In imparting to the British Government these views you may, in 

 your discretion, read this dispatch to Lord Granville, and if he desires 

 it leave him a copy. 



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



Earl Granville to Sir E. Thornton. 



FOREIGN OFFICE, February 18, 1881. 



SIR, The United States' Minister at this Court called upon me here 

 on the 16th instant. 



Mr. Lowell read to me a despatch addressed to him by the United 

 States' Secretary of State, dated the 4th of this month, relative to the 

 occurrences at Fortune Bay; when he had finished reading it, I ob- 

 served that I could only reply to it officially after having considered 

 the despatch, a copy of which he communicated to me, for a day or 

 two, in consultation with my colleagues, but I added that its tone was 

 one of complaint, and hardly in unison with the conciliatory course 

 which Her Majesty's Government have taken in the matter. 



Mr. Lowell, however, assured me that he did not believe that it was 

 intended to convey this impression, but that inasmuch as public opin- 

 ion in the United States had been somewhat excited upon the subject, 

 his Government had deemed it necessary to place once more their 

 views upon record. 



I went on to say that in any case I did not wish to dwell on a matter 

 of form, but that as to the substance of the despatch, there seemed 

 to be propositions in it with which I believed that Her Majesty's 

 Government would be disposed to agree ; that there would be no ob- 

 jection to the reservation by each Government of their opinion as to 

 their respective rights, but it might be hoped that such questions 

 would be set at rest both by the agreement which would be come to 

 as to the amount of damages to be paid to the United States' fisher- 

 men, as well as by the Regulations wl^ich might be established in the 

 future. 



I added that the proposal of the United States' Government, that 

 the question of damages should be arranged by negotiation between 

 the Secretary of State and yourself, or by parties delegated by each of 

 you respectively for that purpose, appeared to me to be good. 



92909 S. Doc. 870, 61-3, vol 3 7 



