934 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



[Inclosure No. 5.j 



Mr. Letsom to the deputy minister of fisheries, Ottawa. 



CUSTOM-HOUSE, Port Medway, January 6, 1887. 



SIR: In reply to your letter of the 30th ultimo, inclosing extract 

 of statement made by Captain S. Jacobs, of the schooner Mollie 

 Adams, I have to say that on the 25th October last, Captain Solomon 

 Jacobs, of schooner Mollie Adams, reported at this office. His report 

 is now before me, in which he swears that he called here for shelter 

 and repairs and for no other purpose. After making his report and 

 when about leaving the office, Captain Jacobs asked if I would allow 

 him to purchase a half barrel of flour. I asked him if he was with- 

 out provisions, and he replied that he was not, adding that he had a 

 good supply of all kinds of provisions except flour, and enough of 

 that to last him home unless he met with some unusual delay. I 

 then told him that under the circumstances I could not give him per- 

 mission to purchase the flour; but no threat was made about seizing 

 his vessel or imposing any penalty whatever. 



The above I am quite willing to substantiate under oath, and can 

 produce a witness to the truth of the statement. 

 I am, etc., 



E. E. LETSOM, 



Collector. 



{ Inclosure No. 6.] 



The Marquis of Lansdowne to Sir H. Holland. 



GOVERNMENT HOUSE, 

 Ottawa, April 2, 1887. 



SIR : With reference to Mr. Stanhope's dispatch of the 16th Decem- 

 ber last, transmitting a copy of a letter from the foreign office, with 

 its inclosures, respecting the alleged improper conduct of authorities 

 in the Dominion in dealing with the United States fishing vessels 

 Laura Sayward and Jennie Seavems, and requesting to be furnished 

 with a report on these cases for communication to the United States 

 Government, I have the honor to forward herewith a copy of an ap- 

 proved minute of the privy council of Canada, embodying a report of 

 my minister of marine and fisheries on the subject. 



I have much pleasure in calling your attention to the penultimate 

 paragraph of that report, from which you will observe that it will, 

 in the opinion of my Government, be possible, in cases like that of the 

 Jennie Seavems, where a foreign fishing vessel has entered a Cana- 

 dian harbor for a lawful purpose and in the pursuance of her treaty 

 rights, to exercise, the necessary supervision over the conduct of her 

 master and crew, and to guard against infractions of the customs law 

 and other statutes binding upon foreign vessels while in Canadian 

 waters, without placing an armed guard on board or preventing rea- 

 sonable communication with the shore. 



My advisers are, in regard to such matters, fully prepared to 

 recognize that a difference should be made between the treatment of 

 vessels bona -fide entering a Canadian harbor for shelter or repair, or 

 to obtain wood and water, and that of other vessels of the same class 

 entering such harbors ostensibly for a lawful purpose, but really with 

 the intention of breaking the law. 



I have, etc., LANSDOWNE. 



