998 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



of Customs at Port Saunders to-day states that American schooners 

 'Nonna' and 'Annie M. Parker' from Gloucester arrived that morn- 

 ing and were preparing to seine and net herring for export, and had 

 refused to pay light dues. In another communication from the 

 Sub-Collector of Customs at Bay of Islands, it is stated that Captain 

 Bonia of Gloucester, special agent for Gloucester firms, arrived 

 there by railway on the 28th ultimo, and is engaging men and hiring 

 boats for the full fishery. My responsible advisers again earnestly 

 pray that His Majesty's Government will permit the proclaiming of 

 sections 6 and 7 of 'The Foreign Fishing- Vessels Act, 1906,' so as to 

 enable them to deal with local fisheries, for it is entirely evident that 

 disorder cannot be avoided and the peaceable conduct of the fisheries 

 maintained in any other way." 



I have asked my responsible advisers [to] tell me, for your informa- 

 tion, from what quarter, at what places, and under what circum- 

 stances disorder is expected, and what measures to preserve peace 

 are being taken. 



Memorandum communicated by the Foreign Office to Mr. Carter, 



October 4, 1906. 



The proposals contained in Mr. Whitelaw Reid's private letter for 

 the suspension of the recruiting clause in section 1 of the Act of 

 1905, ir United States' fishermen would refrain from using purse 

 seines after the 1st November, have been considered by the New- 

 foundland Government, ' but they find themselves quite unable to 

 accept them. 



In these circumstances His Majesty's Government would be glad 

 to be favoured, at the earliest possible moment, with the views of 

 the United States' Government on the modus vivendi proposals 

 contained in Sir E. Grey's Memorandum of the 25th September in 

 order that, if they are accepted, the Colonial Government and United 

 States' fishermen may both be made acquainted at once with the 

 terms of the arrangement proposed, and the necessary instructions 

 given for its observation. 



FOREIGN OFFICE, October 4, 1906. 



Governor MacGregor to Lord Elgin. 



[Telegraphic.] 



[Received October 5, 1906.] 



With reference to the last part of my telegram of the 3rd instant, 

 my responsible advisers inform me that they have been apprized 

 that the people of Bay St. George and Bay of Islands regard the 

 usage of purse seines with great disfavour and alarm, and as destruc- 

 tive to their means of livelihood, and threats to destroy them have 

 been expressed. They hold that if number of Newfoundland fisher- 

 men engage (to) Americans, the majority will resent this. The 

 Sub-Collector at the Bay of Islands writes that armed force will be 

 wanted, as certain naturalized resident American subjects advise 



