204 THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY QUESTION. 



pany of an exclusive licence to fish for lobsters in the locality for the 

 term of five years, is in the opinion of H.M. Government "an 

 assumption of territorial rights in derogation of the Sovereignty of the 

 British Crown, and unwarranted by the Treaty." 



The French Government, on the i6th of February, acknowledged 

 the Marquis of Salisbury's Despatch by maintaining the French 

 position " as an unrestricted right of fishing, as well as the use of the 

 coast for the preparation of the produce of such fishing" an opinion 

 which Lord Knutsford, on March 14th, informed the Marquis of 

 Salisbury, that in the judgment of the Legal Advisers of the Crown, 

 could not be sustained. 



A NEW DEPARTURE. 



An important departure in policy by the British Government 

 appears to have taken place at this date, for on the 28th March, 1889, 

 the Minister for the Colonies, Lord Knutsford, informed the 

 Governor of Newfoundland, Sir Terence O'Brien, that H.M. Govern- 

 ment were of opinion that the best solution of the difficulty in regard 

 to the establishments of British and French lobster factories on the 

 coasts of Newfoundland to which the French Treaty rights extend, 

 would be to come to an arrangement with the French Government 

 that the factories of both countries should be allowed in places and 

 under conditions jointly approved by' the British and French Naval 

 Commanders on the Station. 



The Marquis of Salisbury, in a Despatch to the Colonial Office on 

 May loth, 1889, was of opinion that there were three different con- 

 tentions in regard to the fishery disputes, and his lordship was 

 therefore of opinion that in consequence of the conflicting views 

 held by France, Newfoundland, and England, as to the exact verbal 

 construction of the Treaties, and as to the intentions of the States- 

 men who, more than a century ago, negotiated them, that the best 

 and only course would be to obtain a decision by an impartial 

 Arbitration, and he therefore proposed to Lord Knutsford a settle- 

 ment of the question by that procedure, confined to the following 

 two subjects : 



I. Whether the taking and preserving of lobsters can be properly considered as 

 included in the terms of the Treaties which give to the French the liberty of fishing 

 and drying fish on certain specified parts of the coast. 



u. Whether the lobster-traps set by British subjects along the coast can be said to 

 interfere with French fishing operations in such a manner and to such extent as to 

 constitute an infraction of the Treaties. 



