944 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



lie, and cause a wise abstention from vexatious enforcement of dis- 

 puted powers. 



Awaiting your reply, I am, very truly, yours, 



T. F. BAYARD. 

 Sir CHARLES TUPPER, etc., 



Ottawa, Canada. 



Sir Charles T upper to Mr. Bayard. 



[Personal and unofficial.] 



OTTAWA, June , 1887. (Received June 10, 2 p. m.) 

 MY DEAR MR. BAYARD : 



I have great pleasure in receiving your letter of May 31st, evincing 

 as it does the importance which you attach to an amicable adjustment 

 of the fisheries question, and the maintenance of the cordial com- 

 mercial relations between the United States and Canada under which 

 such vast and mutually beneficial have grown up. 



I entirely concur in your statement that " We both seek to attain 

 a just and permanent settlement, and that there is but one way to 

 procure it, and that is by a straightforward treatment, on a liberal 

 and statesman-like plan, of the entire commercial relations of the 

 two countries." 



I note particularly your suggestions that as the interests of Canada 

 are so immediately concerned, Her Majesty's Government should be 

 invited to depute a Canadian statesman to negotiate with you " a 

 modus vivendi to meet present emergencies and also a permanent plan 

 to avoid all disputes," and I feel no doubt that a negotiation thus 

 undertaken would greatly increase the prospects of a satisfactory 

 solution. 



I say this, not because I believe that there has been any disposition 

 on the part of the British Government to postpone Canadian inter- 

 ests to its own, or to retard by needless delay a settlement desired by 

 and advantageous to the people of Canada and of the United States, 

 but because I have no doubt that direct personal communications will 

 save valuable time and render each side better able to comprehend 

 the needs and the position of the other. 



I am greatly flattered by your kind personal allusion to myself. 



The selection of the persons who might be deputed to act as com- 

 missioners would, however, as you are aware, rest with Her Majesty's 

 Government. 



Our experience has been to the effect that the selection has in such 

 cases, as far as it concerned the choice of the representatives of the 

 Dominion, been made with careful regard to public feeling in this 

 country. 



I have thought it my duty and also the most effectual manner of 

 giving effect to your suggestion, to make known to Lord Lansdowne 

 the purport of my correspondence with you. He is strongly desirous 

 of facilitating a settlement and will at once bring the matter before 

 the secretary of state with an expression of his hope that no time 

 will be lost in taking steps for establishing, by means of personal 



