PERIOD FROM 1871 TO 1905. 911 



vention of 1818, the exclusive right of fishing belongs to Great 

 Britain. 



Her Majesty's Government cordially agree with your Government 

 in believing that a determination of these limits would, whatever may 

 be the future commercial relations between Canada and the United 

 States, either in respect of the fishing industry or in regard to the 

 interchange of other commodities, be extremely desirable, and they 

 will be found ready to co-operate with your Government in effecting 

 such a settlement. 



They are of opinion that Mr. Bayard was justified in reverting to 

 the precedent afforded by the negotiations which took place upon this 

 subject between Great Britain and the United States after the 

 expiration of the reciprocity treaty of 1854, and they concur with him 

 in believing that the draft protocol communicated by Mr. Adams in 

 1866 to the Earl of Clarendon affords a valuable indication of the 

 lines upon which a negotiation directed to the same points might now 

 be allowed to proceed. 



Mr. Bayard has himself pointed out that its concluding paragraph, 

 to which Lord Clarendon emphatically objected, is not contained in 

 the first article of the memorandum now forwarded by him; but he 

 appears to have lost sight of the fact that the remaining articles of 

 that memorandum contain stipulations not less open to objection, and 

 calculated to affect even more disadvantageously the permanent inter- 

 ests of the Dominion in the fisheries adjacent to its coasts. 



There can be no objection on the part of Her Majesty's Government 

 to the appointment of a mixed commission, whose duty it would be to 

 consider and report upon the matters referred to in the three first 

 articles of the draft protocol communicated to the Earl of Clarendon 

 by Mr. Adams in 1866. 



Should a commission instructed to deal with these subjects be ap- 

 pointed at an early date, the result of its investigations might be 

 reported to the Governments affected without much loss of time. 

 Pending the termination of the questions which it would discuss, it 

 would be indispensable that United States fishing vessels entering 

 Canadian bays and harbors should govern themselves not only accord- 

 ing to the terms of the convention of 1818, but by the regulations to 

 which they, in common with other vessels, are subject while within 

 such waters. 



Her Majesty's Government, however, have no doubt that every 

 effort will be made to enforce those regulations in such a manner as 

 to cause the smallest amount of inconvenience to fishing vessels enter- 

 ing Canadian ports under stress of weather, or for any other legiti- 

 mate purpose. 



But there is another course which Her Majesty's Government are 

 inclined to propose, and which, in their opinion, would afford a tem- 

 porary solution of the controversy equally creditable to both parties. 



Her Majesty's Government have never been informed of the reasons 

 which induced the Government of the United States to denounce the 

 fishery articles of the treaty of Washington, but they have understood 

 that the adoption of that course was in a great degree the result of a 

 feeling of disappointment at the Halifax award, under which the 

 United States were called upon to pay the sum of 1.100,0002., being 

 the estimated value of the benefits which would accrue to them, in 



