738 COKBESPONDENCE, ETC. 



you on Her Majesty's paymaster-general, at thirty days after sight, 

 for the sum of 15,000, in full payment of the claims mentioned in 

 my note of the 28th ultimo, and to inform you that the same is ac- 

 cepted by this government on the conditions heretofore agreed upon 

 between us. 



I have, &c., JAMES G. BLAINE. 



Mr. Elaine to Mr. Lowell. 



No. 206.] DEPARTMENT or STATE, 



Washington, July 30, 1881. 



SIR : You have learned from former dispatches that the question in 

 reference to the Fortune Bay claims was settled by Sir Edward 

 Thornton and myself. The amount paid by Her Britannic Majesty's 

 Government has been distributed among the individual claimants, 

 and in connection with this subject there remains nothing for dis- 

 cussion between the two governments. 



But in the examination of the claims in order to their proper dis- 

 tribution, the attention of this government has been forcibly drawn 

 to the condition of affairs out of which these claims arose, and the 

 time seems opportune to ask the serious consideration of this subject 

 by Her Majesty's Government. 



Among the more recent claims which had not been submitted to the 

 British Government, but which are, of course, included in the settle- 

 ment, were several going to show the existence on the part of the na- 

 tive fishermen of Newfoundland of a determined opposition to the 

 exercise of the treaty privileges by fishermen of the United States. 

 In one case, a large and angry mob of these fishermen actually took 

 possession of an American fishing vessel, cut her anchor, and set her 

 sails for the avowed purpose of causing her to drift on the rocks. 

 And the universal testimony of our fishermen, including many who 

 have made no formal complaint to the government, is that they are 

 absolutely forbidden, by both the show and use of force, from taking 

 bait on the coasts of Newfoundland and in other vicinities. 



It might be supposed that the recognition of the British Govern- 

 ment of its responsibility for such lawless interference and its rea- 

 sonable compensation for losses consequent upon them, would put a 

 stop to further violence. But the payment even of large damages 

 by the Imperial Government does not make itself felt upon the 

 provincial population. And from all the information submitted to 

 this government it seems to be not an unfair or unreasonable conclu- 

 sion that there is too much sympathy between the local authorities 

 and the native fishermen, and that there exists at the fishing stations 

 no adequate police force with authority, ability, and disposition to 

 check these outrages. 



The condition of these people under the treaty is, undoubtedly, 

 hard. They are very poor and illiterate. They depend for what is, 

 at best, a very scanty subsistence upon the sale of bait to the United 

 States vessels employed in cod-fishing upon the banks. And the use 

 of their privilege of catching their own bait on the Newfoundland 

 shores, which the treaty secures to American fishermen, necessarily 

 deprives the native fishermen of this means of support. 



