4i8 APPENDIX 



"4th. That, contrary to the terms of the Treaty of Washington, in which it is ex- 

 pressly provided that they do not interfere with the rights of private property, or with 

 British fishermen in the peaceable use of any part of the said coasts in their occupancy 

 for the same purpose (see Article XVIII of the above-named Treaty), they were fishing 

 illegally, interfering with the rights of British fishermen and their peaceable use of 

 that part of the coast then occupied by them, and of which they were actually in pos- 

 session, their seines and boats, their huts, gardens, and land granted by government, 

 being situated thereon." 



The facts which enter into the ofiEenses imputed under the first, second, and third 

 heads of Captain Sulivan's statement, and such offenses thus made out, would seem 

 to be the only warrant for his conclusion under his fourth head, that the United States 

 fishermen have exceeded their Treaty right, and, in their actual prosecution of their 

 fishing, were, when interrupted by the force complained of, interfering with the 

 rights of private property or with British fishermen in the peaceable use of that part 

 of the coast then being in their occupancy for the same purpose, contrary to the proviso 

 of Article XVIII of the Treaty of Washington. 



It is no part of my present purpose to point out that this alleged infraction of the 

 reserved rights of the local fishermen does not justify the methods of correction or 

 redress used to drive off our fishermen and break up their prosecution of the fishing. 

 This may be reserved also for discussion when both Governments have a fuller knowl- 

 edge of the actual circumstances of the transaction. 



In transmitting to you a copy of Captain Sulivan's Report, Lord Salisbury says: 

 "You will perceive that the Report in question appears to demonstrate conclusively 

 that the United States fishermen on this occasion had committed three distinct 

 breaches of the law." 



In this observation of Lord Salisbury, this government cannot fail to see a neces- 

 sary implication that Her Majesty's Government concedes that in the prosecution 

 of the right of fishing accorded to the United States by Article XVIII of the Treaty 

 our fishermen are subject to the local regulations which govern the coast population 

 of Newfoundland in their prosecution of their fishing industry, whatever those regu- 

 lations may be, and whether enacted before or since the Treaty of Washington. 



The three particulars in which our fishermen are supposed to be constrained by 

 actual legislation of the province cover in principle every degree of regulation of our 

 fishing industry within the three-mile line which can well be conceived. But they are, 

 in themselves, so important and so serious a hmitation of the right secured by the 

 Treaty as practically to exclude our fishermen from any profitable pursuit of the right, 

 which, I need not add, is equivalent to annulling or cancelling, by the Provincial 

 Government, of the privilege accorded by the treaty with the British Government. 



If our fishing fleet is subject to the Sunday laws of Newfoundland, made for the 

 coast population; if it is excluded from the fishing-grounds for half the year, from 

 October to April; if our "seines and other contrivances" for catching fish are subject 

 to the regulation of the Legislature of Newfoundland, it is not easy to see what firm 

 or valuable measures for the privilege of Article XVIII as conceded to the United 

 States, this government can promise to its citizens under the guaranty of the Treaty. 



It would not, under any circumstances, be admissible for one Government to subject 

 the persons, the property, and the interests of its fishermen to the unregulated regula- 

 tion of another government upon the suggestion that such authority will not be op- 

 pressively or capriciously exercised, nor would any Government accept as an adequate 

 guarantee of the proper exercise of such authority over its citizens by a foreign govern- 



