880 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



[Sub-lnclosure l.J 



Report of a committee of the honorable the privy council, approved 

 by Ms excellency the administrator of the Government in council 

 for Canada on the 30th day of October, 1886. 



The committee of the privy council have had under consideration a 

 telegram of the 22d August and a dispatch of the 25th August last, 

 from the right honorable the secretary of state for the colonies, trans- 

 mitting copy of a letter from Her Majesty's minister at Washington, 

 inclosing a note from Mr. Secretary Bayard, complaining of the 

 action of the customs officer at Magdalen Islands, with reference to 

 the American fishing schooner Mascotte. 



The minister of marine and fisheries, to whom the correspondence 

 was referred, observes that Mr. Bayard, in his note to the British 

 minister at Washington, says : 



" I am also in possession of the affidavit of Alex. T. Vachem, mas- 

 ter of the American fishing schooner Mascotte, who entered Port 

 Amherst, Magdalen Islands, and was there threatened by the cus- 

 toms official with seizure of his vessel if he attempted to obtain bait 

 for fishing or take a pilot." 



And from a report of the customs officer at Magdalen Islands, a 

 copy of which, so far as it relates to the case in point, is hereto an- 

 nexed, it appears that no grounds exist for the complaint made by 

 the master of the Mascotte. 



The minister states that Captain Vachem [McEachern] was served 

 with a printed copy of the " warning," and was, in addition, informed 

 by the collector that under the treaty of 1818 he had no right to buy 

 bait or to ship men. He was not forbidden to take fish, but, on the 

 contrary, the collector pointed out to him on the chart the places in 

 which, by the convention of 1818, he, as a United States fisherman, 

 had the right to inshore fishing, and one of the places so pointed out 

 to him was the Magdalen Islands. 



Notwithstanding the " warning " and the personal explanation of 

 the collector, it appears that Captain Vachem [McEachern | did go 

 up the country and attempt to hire men, and upon his return in- 

 formed the collector that he could not get any. For this, clearly 

 an illegal act, he was not interfered with by the collector. 



The minister further observes that the convention of 1818, while 

 it grants to United States fishermen the right of fishing in common 

 with British subjects on the shores of the Magdalen Islands, does not 

 confer upon them privileges of trading or of shipping men, and it 

 was against possible acts of the latter kind, and not against fishing 

 inshore, or seeking the rights of hospitality guaranteed under the 

 treaty, that Captain Vachem [McEachern] "was warned by the col- 

 lector. 



With reference to the remarks of the colonial secretary that " Her 

 Majesty's Government would recommend that special ' instructions 

 should be issued to the authorities at the places where the inshore 

 fisheries has been granted by the convention of 1818 to the United 

 States fishermen, calling their attention to the provisions of that con- 

 vention, and warning them that no action contrary thereto may be 

 taken in regard to United States fishing vessels," the minister states 

 that the circular instructions issued to collectors of customs recite the 



