984 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



is equivalent to a claim of power to completely destroy that right. 

 This Government is far from desiring that the Newfoundland fish- 

 eries shall go unregulated. It is willing and ready now, as it has 

 always been, to join with the Government of Great Britain in agreeing 

 upon all reasonable and suitable regulations for the due control of the 

 fishermen of both countries in the exercise of their rights, but this 

 Government cannot permit the exercise of these rights to be subject 

 to the will of the Colony of Newfoundland. The Government of the 

 United States cannot recognize the authority of Great Britain or of 

 its Colony to determine whether American citizens shall fish on 

 Sunday. *The Government of Newfoundland cannot be permitted 

 to make entry and clearance at a Newfoundland custom-house and 

 the payment of a tax for the support of Newfoundland lighthouses 

 conditions to the exercise of the American right of fishing. If it be 

 shown that these things are reasonable the Government of the United 

 States will agree to tb^em, but it cannot submit to have them imposed 

 upon it without its consent. This position is not a matter of theory. 

 It is of vital and present importance, for the plain object of recent 

 legislation of the Colony of Newfoundland has been practically to 

 destroy the value of American rights under the Treaty or 1818. Those 

 rights are exercised in competition with the fishermen and merchants 

 or Newfoundland. The situation of the Newfoundland fishermen 

 residing upon the shore and making the shore their base of operations, 

 and of the American fishermen coming long distances with expensive 

 outfits, devoting long periods to the voyage to the fishing grounds 

 and back to the market, obliged to fish rapidly in order to make up 

 for that loss of time, and making ships their base of operations, are so 

 different that it is easy to frame regulations which will offer slight 

 inconvenience to the dwellers on shore and be practically prohibitory 

 to the fishermen from the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts; and, 

 if the grant of this competitive right is to be subject to such laws as 

 our competitors choose to make, it is a worthless right. The Premier 

 of Newfoundland in his speech in the Newfoundland Parliament, de- 

 livered on the 12th April, 1905, in support of the Foreign Fishing Bill, 

 made the following declaration: 



"This Bill is framed specially to prevent the American fishermen 

 from coming into the bays, harbours, and creeks of the coast of New- 

 foundland for the purpose of obtaining herring, caplin, and squid for 

 fishing purposes." 



And this further declaration: 



"This communication is important evidence as to the value of the 

 position we occupy as mistress of the northern seas so far as the fish- 

 eries are concerned. Herein was evidence that it is within the power 

 of the Legislature of this Colony to make or mar our competitors to 

 the North Atlantic fisheries. Here was evidence that by refusing or 

 restricting the necessary bait supply, we can bring our foreign com- 

 petitors to realize their dependency upon us. One of the objects of 

 this legislation is to bring the fishing interests of Gloucester and New 

 England to a realization of their dependence upon the bait supplies 

 of this Colony. No measure could have been devised having more 

 clearly for its object the conserving, safeguarding, and protecting of 

 the interests of those concerned in the fisheries of the Colony." 



It will be observed that there is here the very frankest possible dis- 

 avowal of any intention to so regulate the fisheries as to be fair to the 



