PERIOD FROM 1871 TO 1905. 841 



an extract from an approved report of the Canadian privy council 

 dealing with this question. 



I have, &c., L. S. SACKVILLE WEST. 



[Inclosure.] 



Extract from a certified copy of a report of a committee of the honor- 

 able the privy council approved by his excellency the administrator 

 of the Government in council on the 16th August, 1886. 



The committee of the privy council have had under consideration 

 a dispatch dated 15 July, 1886, from the secretary of state for the 

 colonies in which he asks for a report from the Canadian Government 

 on the subject of an inclosed note from Mr. Secretary Bayard to the 

 British minister at Washington relating to certain warnings alleged 

 to have been given to United States fishing vessels by the subcollector 

 of customs at Canso. 



Mr. Bayard states: 



First. That the masters of the four American fishing vessels of 

 Gloucester, Mass., Martha C. Bradley, Rattler, Eliza Boynton, and 

 Pioneer, have severally reported to the consul-general at Halifax, 

 that the subcollector of customs at Canso had warned them to keep 

 outside an imaginary line drawn from a point three miles outside 

 Canso head to a point three miles outside St. Esprit on the Cape 

 Breton coast. 



Second. That the same masters also report that they were warned 

 against going inside an imaginary line drawn from a point three 

 miles outside North Cape, in Prince Edward Island, to a point three 

 miles outside East Point on the same island. 



Third. That the same authority informed the masters of the vessels 

 referred to that they would not be permitted to enter Bay Chaleur. 



The minister of marine and fisheries, to whom the dispatch and 

 inclosures were referred, observes that the instructions issued to col- 

 lectors of customs authorized them in certain cases to furnish United 

 States fishing vessels with a copy of the circular hereto attached, and 

 which constitutes the only official " warning " collectors of customs 

 are empowered to give. It was to be presumed that the subcollector 

 of customs at Canso, as all other collectors, would carefully follow 

 out the instructions as received, and that therefore no case such as 

 that alleged by Mr. Secretary Bayard would be likely to arise. 



The minister states, however, so soon as the dispatch above referred 

 to was received he sent to the subcollector at Canso a copy of the alle- 

 gations, and requested an immediate reply thereto. 



The subcollector, in answer, emphatically denies that he has ordered 

 any American vessel out of any harbor in his district or elsewhere, or 

 that he did anything in the way of warning, except to deliver copies 

 of the official circular above alluded to, and states that he boarded no 

 United States vessel other than the Annie Jordan and the Hereward, 

 and that neither the Martha C. Bradley, Rattler, or Pioneer, of Glou- 

 cester, have, during this season, reported at his port of entry. He, 

 with equal clearness, denies that he has warned any United States 

 fishing vessels to keep outside the line drawn from Cape North to 

 East Point, alluded to by Mr. Secretary Bayard, or that they would 

 not be permitted to enter Bay des Chaleurs. 



