392 APPENDIX 



In the course of the conversation which I had the honor to engage in with Lord 

 Lansdowne on July 7th, the eminent Minister of Foreign Affairs of the King and I 

 examined one by one all the problems which presented themselves before us. It 

 was recognized that it was not impossible to find a solution equally advantageous to 

 both parties in the case of all of them 



Our common efforts which a like spirit of conciliation at all times directed, resulted 

 in the agreements of April 8th of which I append hereto the authentic text, adding 

 some explanations upon their nature and their import. 



Newfotjndi-and. — The affairs of Newfoundland were among those which on 

 numerous occasions had given rise to discussions increasingly troublesome. Their 

 origin hes in the remote past. Article XIII of the Treaty of Utrecht had abandoned 

 to Great Britain Newfoundland and the adjacent islands. It was only on the western 

 coast and on a portion of the eastern coast that we could take and dry fish and then 

 only during the customary fishing season. Every- permanent establishment was 

 forbidden to us. 



The increasingly frequent difficulties to which the execution of the Treaty 

 of Utrecht led necessitated a special clause in the Treaty of Versailles of 1783, 

 which was completed by the declaration of King George of the same date, the 

 object of which was the avoidance of daily quarrels between the fishermen of the 

 two nations. 



In spite of all precautions taken it maybe said that in the course of the last century 

 hardly a year passed in which the exercise of our privilege was not the cause of 

 complaints or collisions. The population of Newfoundland, which in the beginning 

 numbered hardly four or five thousand souls, increased gradually to two hundred 

 and ten thousand. In the desire of the latter to develop the resources of their island 

 the French shore presented itself to them as closed to all progress; they could enjoy 

 no benefits in a region in which they hoped to find mines and soil favorable to agri- 

 culture and which we ourselves could not utilize. Thus hostile opinion began to arise 

 against our privilege. The irresistible pressure of the necessities of existence in an 

 uninviting and hard climate weakened in an increasing measure day by day the bar- 

 riers of the ancient servitudes (servitudes anciennes) and in spite of our constant 

 protest the inhabitants of the island established themselves gradually along a portion 

 of the coveted shore. 



Our resistance to these invasions became the more difficult because while the 

 island saw its population and its requirements increase, the number of our fishermen 

 frequenting the French shore diminished year by year. From ten thousand, the 

 number of fishermen in the middle of the last century, it decreased to four or five 

 hundred, until it reached last year scarcely two hundred and thirty-eight. For the 

 benefit of these few fishermen and for the few weeks in the year which they devoted 

 to fishing in these regions the inhabitants of the country saw access to and enjoyment 

 of almost half the coast of the island forbidden to them. 



It was this state of things, impatiently borne, which caused the Parliament 

 of Newfoundland to reject the arrangements concluded between the Cabinets at 

 Paris and at London in 1857 and 1885 for the purpose of bringing about a 

 compromise between the rigor of ancient treaties and the exigencies of the present 

 situation. 



The latter of these agreements contained a stipulation which accorded to us the 

 right of purchasing bait, that is, herring, capelin, squid, etc., necessary for the cod 

 fishery. This was the reason which induced the Parliament at St. John's to reject 



