r* 



ARGUMENT OF MR. ROOT 69 



obliged to emigrate to foreign lands to obtain a livelihood denied them at 

 home." 



The Bay of Islands fishermen held a monster mass meeting, in 

 which they passed a resolution protesting against the new poUcy. 

 They say, at p. 386 of the United States Counter-Case Appendix: 



"We beg to state most emphatically that the people of this coast are 

 unanimous in condemning this poUcy as one which is injurious to the best 

 interests of the Colony as a whole, and ruinous to the livelihood of the people 

 of this Western Coast." 



Governor MacGregor, forwarding that in a letter of the 4th of 

 April, 1907, to the Colonial Office, says that the newspaper which 

 reports it represents that this resolution was adopted at a meeting 

 which was well attended and that "the resolution was adopted 

 with practical unanimity, and expresses the deliberate opinion of 

 the community." There was a protest from Bonne Bay, which 

 appears at p. 389. The fishermen, in what they say, point to the 

 real origin of this poUcy: 



"If ever the Americans are effectually excluded, it may be that the West 

 Coast merchants who engage in the Bank fishery will come to the front; but 

 before kilhng the goose that laid the golden egg the substitute or successor 

 should have been found." 



Governor MacGregor writes, p. 390: 



"At the same time it is impossible to conceal from oneself the fact that 

 the people of Bonne Bay and of Bay of Islands are those that are most directly 

 interested in, and dependent on, this particular herring fishery, in which prac- 

 tically no others, except the people of St. George's Bay, participate." 



There were a number of others that I will not detain you upon. 

 Mr. Elder has read to you what Sir James Winter said in a formal 

 public interview regarding this poHcy as being a policy directed 

 against the interests and against the protests of the fishermen them- 

 selves. Now, here is the explanation of it — United States Counter 

 Case Appendix, p. 446. Sir Robert Bond reads, in his speech to 

 the Newfoundland Legislature, a communication which he has 

 received, dated the 23rd March, 1905, signed by a list of merchants 

 of St. John, and containing this resolution: 



Resolved, That, in the opinion of the meeting," — 



