340 BALCH— THE AMERICAN-BRITISH [April 22, 



foundland fishing vessels." The convention provided for a recipro- 

 cal free exchange of various American and Newfoundland products. 

 To make the convention operative the plenipotentiaries agreed that 

 it should be subject to ratification by the American Senate and Her 

 Britannic Majesty, and that it should " take efl^ect as soon as the 

 laws required to carry it into operation shall have been passed by 

 the Congress of the United States on the one hand, and the Imperial 

 Parliament of Great Britain and the provincial legislature of New- 

 foundland on the other." Owing to a vigorous protest from the 

 Canadian government, the British imperial government in a memo- 

 randum addressed on May 21, 1891, by the British Legation at 

 Washington to the State Department, notified the American govern- 

 ment that it could not agree to ratify the convention, " unless pari 

 passu with the proposed Canadian negotiations." 



A joint commission of two experts, one named by each govern- 

 ment, to examine and report upon the subject was agreed upon in 

 1892; and the commission reported early in 1897. 



The northeastern fisheries question was included in the work 

 submitted for adjustment to the xA.merican-British Joint High Com- 

 mission that met and organized for business at Quebec, August 23, 

 1898. Owing to th^ Joint High Commission being unable to come 

 to a satisfactory agreement concerning the eastern frontier of the 

 Alaska lisicrc, which was then in dispute between the American re- 

 public and the British empire, the Joint High Commission adjourned 

 in March, 1899, without having arranged the fisheries or any other 

 of the questions submitted to it.*^ 



In 1895 and again in 1898 Canada unsuccessfully sought reciproc- 

 ity herself. Secretary of State Hay and Ambassador Herbert took 

 up at Washington the discussion of the fisheries as between America 

 and Newfoundland and finally agreed on November 8, 1902, upon 

 a new convention, known after the American Secretary of State 

 and the Newfoundland premier who inspired the negotiations of the 

 British Ambassador, as the Hay-Bond Convention.^" 



"Thomas Willing Balch, "The Alaska Frontier," Philadelphia, 1903, pp. 

 162, 168. 



^ Senate Executive Documents, No. 49, 57th Congress, 2d Session. " A 

 Convention with Great Britain, signed at Washington on November 8, 1902, 

 for the Improvement of Commercial Relations with Newfoundland." 



