740 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



men, including many who have made no formal complaint to the 

 government, is that they are absolutely forbidden, both by the show 

 and use of force, from taking bait on the coast of Newfoundland and 

 in other vicinities. It might be supposed that the recognition by Her 

 Majesty's Government of its responsibility for such lawless inter- 

 ference, and its having made reasonable compensation for losses con- 

 sequent upon them, would put a stop to further violence. 



But the payment of even large damages by the Imperial Govern- 

 ment does not make itself felt upon the provincial population. And 

 from all the information submitted to the Government of the United 

 States, it seems to be not an unfair or unreasonable conclusion that 

 there is too much sympathy between the local authorities and the 

 native fishermen, and that there exists at the fishing stations no ade- 

 quate 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. 



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. 



Mr. Blaine, in his dispatch on this subject, states that he refers to 

 these facts merely as they are indicative 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 provisions will 

 expire, and in the discussion of the common interests which must be 

 anticipated my government is anxious that questions sufficiently 

 grave in their own nature should not be complicated with local and 

 temporary irritations. 



It is believed by my government, therefore, that Her Majesty's 

 ministers will agree in thinking it desirable that the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment should impress upon the provincial authorities their duty 

 to maintain and enforce the rights which the treaty has conferred 

 within their jurisdiction upon citizens of the United States, and 

 especially that they should place at the baiting stations, and on the 

 frequented portions of the coast, officials with sufficient authority to 

 restrain these outbreaks of violence. 



In bringing this subject to the attention of your lordship, I am 

 particularly instructed to take care that Her Majesty's Government 

 shall fully understand the friendly spirit in which my representation 

 is made, and that the desire of my government, 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 treaty provisions of the treaty of Washington. 

 I have, &c., . 



J. R. LOWELU 



