202 THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY QUESTION. 



For twelve months, or thereabouts, these protests .of the French 

 Government were several times repeated, not only as regards lobster 

 factories, but also on account of the cod traps that the fishermen of 

 the Colony had set in various bays and harbours, and all efforts on 

 the part of the Colonial Minister' to induce the Newfoundland 

 Government to meet the urgent demands of France seemed to have 

 been unavailing. The Colonial Minister, before taking further action, 

 instructed the Admiralty on July 28th, 1887, in consequence of the 

 demands of the French Government, to obtain in a separate tabular 

 form the full particulars of the British lobster factories from Cape 

 St. John to Cape Ray, and on August 30th this return was received 

 at the Colonial Office, and showed that there were in all twelve 

 British lobster factories established on that portion of the coast 

 line referred to, at the two largest of which it was estimated that the 

 average catch per day of lobsters amounted in one case to 7,000, and 

 in the other 3,000, and that the industry found employment on an 

 average from 40 to 50 men at each factory, independent of the tin- 

 ning of lobsters by women and children. 



On October 6th, 1887, M. Flourens, the French Minister for 

 Foreign Affairs, instructed the French Ambassador to inform the 

 British Government that further lobster factories at Bonne Bay had 

 been erected, and demanded their removal ; and again on the 2nd 

 September, 1888, a long Despatch was addressed by M. Waddington 

 to the Marquis of Salisbury in consequence of the establishment by 

 Mr. Shearer, a native of Nova Scotia, of a lobster factory near Point 

 Riche on the French shore line, and requesting that it be closed. 

 In reply to this and other French Despatches on the subject, the 

 Marquis of Salisbury stated that H.M. Government were unable to 

 assent to the position taken up by the French Government, and that 

 this position was much complicated by the erection of the French 

 lobster factories, which his Lordship considered were in " violation of 

 the expressed provisions of the Treaty, and of the Sovereign rights of 

 the British Crown." 



The French Government answered the Despatch of Lord Salisbury 

 on the 15th December, and entered into an examination of the prin- 

 cipal Articles of the Treaties relating to French rights in Newfound- 

 land, and contended that " Fish applies to all the products of the 

 sea, and, therefore, that France has not only the right for the fish- 

 ing of lobsters, but also that of preparing them on the sgj t for sale,'' 

 and on these grounds they insisted on the closing of Mr. Shearer's 

 factory. 



