18 The Fialurij Question •• 



between the respective Governments of London, Ottawa, and 

 Washington, it was agreed that steps should be tak^n at the 

 earhest date possible for the appointment of a joint Commission 

 "charged with the consideration and settlement, upon a just, 

 equitable, and honourable basis, of the enJre question of the 

 fishing rights of the two Governr nts and their respective 

 citizens on the coasts of the United States and of iiritish North 

 America." Accordingly, during the past season, American 

 fishermen freely frequented the waters of the Dominion, while 

 Canadian fishermen had not only to suffer this foreign com- 

 petition at their own doors, but found the market heretofore 

 open to them in the United States crippled by high import 

 duties at a time when the price of this staple article of com- 

 merce was exceedingly low, and the demand in the West Indies 

 had fallen off on account of the depression existing in the sugar 

 industry of those islands. However, Canada had no other course 

 open to her in this perplexing dilemma, involving such im- 

 portant international considerations, than to agree to the tem- 

 porary arrangement in question, with the hope that the difficulty 

 would be satisfactorily settled in the way proposed. It is pleasant 

 to find that President Cleveland is evidently desirous of arriving 

 at a just and honourable solution of the question as soon as 

 possible. In his message to Congress in December last he 

 expresses his opinion that, " in the interest of good neighbour- 

 hood and of the commercial intercourse of adjacent communi- 

 ties, the question of the North American fisheries is one of large 

 importance/'' After recommending that Congress provide for 

 the appointment of a Commission, he proceeds to say: "The 

 fishing interests being intimately related to other general 

 questions dependent upon contiguity, consideration thereof, in 

 all their equities, might also properly come within the province 

 of such a Commission, and the fullest latitude of ex[)res:jion on 

 both sides should be permitted." 



We have now given an historical review of this question 

 since it became a matter of controversy between Great Britain 

 and the United States. It will be seen that throughout all the 

 negotiations on the fisheries the public men of Canada have 

 shown a fair and conciliatory disposition, which ought to be fully 

 appreciated by their neighbours, now that happily there exists a 

 far better understar.ding on all questions than was the case up 

 to 1871, when the people of the United States were not so - 

 favourably disposed towards Canadians and Englishmen 

 generally. It is obviously inconvenient on all sides that these 

 international issues should be of constant occurrence when it 

 has always been possible to settle them for a long term of years, 

 if not for all time. The Canadians have always felt — and Presi- 



