QUESTION SIX. 249 



1898 : The Newfoundland customs circular of March 18, 1898, con- 

 tained the following clause : 



You are to see that every fishing vessel of the United States which 

 enters your port or any port within your jurisdiction, except it be 

 within the above limits (i. e., Cape Ray and the Ramea Islands and 

 Cape Ray and Quirpon Islands) for other than the purpose of 

 shelter, repairing damage and of purchasing wood and obtaining 

 water, shall obtain a license as set forth in the " foreign fishing ves- 

 sels act" and shall pay for the same the fee of one dollar and fifty 

 cents per registered ton, but if the port be within the above limits 

 she may enter to take (catch) fish without a license. 



Under the treaty of 1818, made between Great Britain and the 

 United States, the fishermen of the latter country have liberty to 

 catch fish on that part of the coast between Ramea Islands and Cape 

 Ray and between Cape Ray and the Quirpon Islands, and of drying 

 or curing fish in any unsettled parts within those limits. 



1904 : The correspondence between Great Britain and the Govern- 

 ment of Newfoundland in the spring of 1904 concerning the French 

 treaty of that year is a complete admission of the rights of Ameri- 

 can fishermen in the bays of the treaty coasts. By a despatch from 

 Mr. Lyttleton, secretary of state for the colonies, received in New- 

 foundland 12th April, 1904, 6 the Colonial Government was advised 

 of the text of the clauses affecting Newfoundland in the treaty 

 which had just been signed. Answering this despatch under date of 

 15th April, 1904, Governor Boyle replied : 



Ministers request me to state that if the right of the people of this 

 colony to its fisheries throughout the year is not preserved they cannot 

 approve the arrangement. If British fishermen were prohibited 

 from the winter fishery under convention or other instrument does 

 not His Majesty's Government realize that the whole winter fishery 

 would ~be in the hands of Americans by virtue of treaty 1818 and 

 British subjects must find themselves in most invidious and ruinous 

 position. Ministers must press that close season shall only apply to 

 concurrent right of French fishermen. 



Sir Edward Grey fixes the bays of the west coast as the places 

 where the winter fishery was conducted. 4 



Mr. Lyttleton's despatch of the 19th April, 1904, set at rest their 

 anxiety concerning the winter fishery and showed that British fish- 

 ermen would share therein after October 20, in each year, instead of 

 its being wholly in the hands of Americans. 



Sir Robert Bond was prime minister when Governor Boyle's des- 

 patch was sent and his conception of the present British contention 



a U. S. Case, Appendix, 331. U. S. Counter Case, Appendix, 338. 



> U. S. Counter Case, Appendix, 337. * Infra, 252. 



