136 FISHERIES ARBITRATION AT THE HAGUE 



"I have communicated to my ministers your despatch of the 30th October, 

 1886, with reference to the lobster fishery on that part of the coast of New- 

 foundland where the French have fishing rights. . . . Though I have as 

 yet had no communication from my Ministers on the subject, I may mention 

 at once that there was never any intention of enforcing this Order against 

 French subjects." 



On the 12th February, 1887, there is a letter, p. 320 of the 

 United States Counter-Case Appendix, in which the Colonial 

 Office of Great Britain, writing to the Foreign Office, says: 



"Count d'Aubigny appears to found his complaint on the fact that the 

 French right of fishery cannot be limited by a Colonial Decree; but the posi- 

 tion taken by Captain LeClerc is tantamount to a denial of the right of the 

 Colonial authorities to issue any Decree binding upon British subjects on 

 matters concerning the fisheries on that part of the coast." 



The Marquis of Salisbury writes M. Waddington on the 5th 

 July, 1887, communicating the fact that he has received a formal 

 assurance from the government of Newfoundland that the pro- 

 hibition is not to be enforced against French citizens. 



Another question arose between the French and British which 

 brought out some further correspondence, and, on the 23rd Novem- 

 ber, 1888, Lord Salisbury, writing to M. Waddington, in the letter 

 which appears at p. 324, states the view of Great Britain regarding 

 the French rights. He says, in the paragraph at the foot of the 

 page: 



"Her Majesty's Government are unable to assent to the claim advanced 

 by your Excellency that the French Government must be sole judge as to 

 what constitutes such interference within the terms of the British Declara- 

 tion of 1783. 



"That is a question on which both governments have an equal right to 

 form any opinion, and as to which Her Majesty's Government have always 

 endeavored to meet the views of the French Government as far as was 

 possible consistently with the just claims of the Colony.'' 



That is the British view of the French rights, and that is the 

 description of the rights as they existed, and as they were exercised 

 prior to the making of the treaty of 18 18. The limit of Great 

 Britain's contention regarding them was not that she could regu- 

 late the French rights — that she repudiated — but that France 

 was not the sole judge regarding the exercise of her rights, and that 



