PERIOD FROM 1871 TO 1905. 739 



But it is to be assumed that these considerations were given their 

 due weight by the British Government when negotiating the treaty of 

 Washington, and it must not be forgotten that Newfoundland has 

 received a large sum from the United States Treasury in payment for 

 this privilege. 



I refer to these facts merely as the indication of future troubles, for 

 if at any time the fishing vessels of the United States should resolve to 

 meet force with force the result of so untoward an occurrence would 

 be to raise issues equally unpleasant to both governments. 



The time is approaching when the present treaty will expire, and in 

 the discussion of the common interests, w r hich must be anticipated, 

 this government is anxious that questions sufficiently grave in their 

 own nature should not be complicated with local and temporary 

 irritations. 



It is desirable, therefore, that the imperial government should im- 

 press upon the provincial authorities their duty to maintain and en- 

 force the rights which the treaty has conferred within their jurisdic- 

 tion upon citizens of the United States, and especially that there 

 should be placed at the baiting stations and on the frequented por- 

 tions of the coast officials with sufficient authority to restrain these 

 outbreaks of violence. 



You are instructed to bring this subject to the attention of Her 

 Britannic Majesty's Government in such manner as you may deem 

 most judicious. In doing so, you will take care that Her Britannic 

 Majesty's Government shall fully understand the friendly spirit in 

 which your representation is made, and that the desire of this gov- 

 ernment in making it is to prevent in the future those disturbances 

 which have done so much to render unsatisfactory the settlement 

 which it was hoped had been reached in the fishery provisions of the 

 treaty of Washington. 



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



Mr. Lowell to Lord Granville. 



LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 



London, August 19, 1881. 



My LORD: I am instructed by Mr. Blaine to ask the attention of 

 Her Majesty's Government to a subject of serious interest in con- 

 nection with the exercise, by the fishermen of the United States, of 

 their treaty privileges on the coast of Newfoundland. 



In the examination of the Fortune Bay claims, in order to make a 

 proper distribution of the amount lately paid by Her Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment, the attention of the Government of the United States has 

 been forcibly drawn to the condition of affairs out of which those 

 claims arose. Among the more recent claims which had not been 

 submitted to Her Majesty's Government, but which are, of course, 

 included in the settlement, were several going to show the existence, 

 on the part of the native 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 New- 

 foundland fishermen 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 fisher- 



