PERIOD FROM 1905 TO 1909. 



tween internal affairs of Colony and matters of international interest, 

 and insisted strongly on right of Imperial Government to intervene 

 in matters coming within latter category; secondly, I have never 

 admitted, and cannot admit, that "Foreign Fishing- Vessels Act, 

 1906," comes within former category; thirdly, like my predecessor, 

 I have never approved policy embodied in Act of 1905, nor have I 

 ever given any indication that I should be prepared to advise His 

 Majesty in Council to bring into operation amended Act of 1906. 



Lord Elgin to Governor MacGregor. 



DOWNING STREET, September 20, 1906. 



SIR: I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your tele- 

 gram of the 15th instant, in which your Ministers complain of the 

 action of His Majesty's Government in the matter of the proposed 

 fishery modus vivendi with the United States' Government. 



2. Your Ministers submit that any arrangement involving the 

 suspension of "The Foreign Fishing Vessels Act, 1906," is an inter- 

 ference with the internal affairs of the Colony, which violates the 

 pledge given by the late Lord Salisbury in the House of Lords in 1891," 

 to the effect that the Colony had been given unlimited power with 

 respect to its internal affairs. 



3. In the speech referred to Lord Salisbury drew a clear and precise 

 distinction between the internal affairs of the Colony and matters of 

 international and outside interest, and insisted strongly on the right 

 of the Imperial Government to intervene in questions touching the re- 

 lations of the Empire with foreign States. I am compelled therefore 

 to infer that your Ministers regard the enforcement of the provisions 

 of "The Foreign Fishing-Vessels Act, 1906," on United States' fish- 

 ermen as a matter of purely local concern. 



4. I am at a loss to discover the grounds on which they hold that 

 view, and I regret that I am unable to record my assent to it. It will 

 be within your recollection that when you informed me in February 

 last of the intention of your Ministers to propose to the Colonial 

 Legislature additional legislation to prevent British subjects resident 

 in the Colony from fishing for American vessels, and suggested that 

 such legislation would be regarded by His Majesty's Government as 

 a matter of local concern, I replied that I held the contrary view and 

 that His Majesty's Government, as responsible for the proper carrying 

 out of the provisions of Article I of the Convention of 1818, were 

 closely and directly interested in any legislation intended to define 

 the conditions on which the rights of the inhabitants of the United 

 States under that Article were to be exercised. 



5. Your Ministers state that the Act of 1906 was passed after 

 consultation with His Majesty's Government. This remark appears 

 to me to require qualification. The only provisions of the Act with 

 which His Majesty's Government have identified themselves are those 

 which exempt vessels exercising Treaty rights of fishery from the 

 application of section 3 and the first part of section 1 of the Act of 

 1905. It is true that all the other amendments of the Act of 1905 

 drawn up by your Ministers were submitted to His Majesty's Gov- 

 ernment, and that in order to remove certain obvious objections to 



U2909- fcs. Doc. 870, 61-3, \ul 3 24 



