966 COBRESFONDENCB, ETC. 



Mr. Root to Sir M. Durand. 



DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, 

 October 19, 1905. (Received at Foreign Office, October 27.} 



EXCELLENCY: Mr. Gardner, the Representative in Congress of 

 the Gloucester district, has placed in my hands a number of de- 

 spatches received by him from masters of American vessels now on 

 the Newfoundland coast. These despatches are answers to inquiries 

 sent by him at my request for the purpose of ascertaining definitely, 

 if possible, what is the precise difficulty there. 



These despatches agree hi the statement that vessels of American 

 registry are forbidden to fish on the Treaty Coast. One captain says 

 that he was informed that he could not fish by the Inspector of the 

 Revenue Protection Service of Newfoundland, and several of them 

 that they have been ordered not to take herring by the Collector of 

 Customs at Bonne Bay, Newfoundland. 



It would seem that the Newfoundland officials are making a 

 distinction between two classes of American vessels. We have 

 vessels which are registered, and vessels which are licensed to fish 

 and not registered. The licence carries a narrow and restricted 

 authority; the registry carries the broadest and most unrestricted 

 authority. The vessel with a licence can fish, but cannot trade; the 

 registered vessels can lawfully both fish and trade. The distinction 

 between the two classes in the action of the Newfoundland authorities 

 would seem to have been implied in the despatch from Senator Lodge 

 which I quoted in my letter of the 12th, and the imputation of the 

 prohibition of the Minister of Marine and Fisheries may perhaps have 

 come from the port officers, in conversation with the masters of 

 American vessels, giving him as their authority for their prohibitions. 



As the buying of herring and bait fish, which until recently has 

 been permitted for a good many years in Newfoundland, is trading, 

 the American fishing fleet have come very generally to take an 

 American registry, instead of confining themselves to the narrower 

 fishing licence, and far the greater part of the fleet now in northern 

 waters consists of registered vessels. The prohibition against fishing 

 under an American register substantially bars the fleet from fishing. 

 American vessels have also apparently been in the habit of entering 

 at the Newfoundland custom-houses and applying for a Newfoundland 

 licence to buy or take bait, and I gather from all the information I 

 have been able to get that both the American masters and the Cus- 

 toms officials have failed to clearly appreciate the different conditions 

 created by the practical withdrawal of all privileges on the part of 

 Newfoundland and the throwing of the American fishermen back upon 

 the bare rights which belong to them under the Treaty of 1818. 



I am confident that we can reach a clear understanding regarding 

 those rights and the essential conditions of their exercise, and that a 

 statement of this understanding to the Newfoundland Government, 

 for the guidance of its officials on the one hand, and to our American 

 fishermen for their guidance on the other, will prevent causeless 

 injury and possible disturbances, such as have been cause for regret 

 in the past history of the north-eastern fisheries. 



I will try to state our view upon the matters involved in the situa- 

 tion, which now appears to exist upon the Treaty Coast. We con- 

 sider that 



