422 APPENDIX 



, It so happened that the transactions of which certain citizens of the United States 

 complain, were brought fully to the attention of the Government about the same time 

 at which it became my duty to lay before Her Britannic Majesty's Government the 

 views of the United States Government as to the award then recently made by the 

 Commission on the Fisheries, which had just closed its sittings at Halifax. While 

 the character of the complaint and the interests of the citizens of the United States 

 rendered it necessary that the subject should be submitted to the consideration of 

 Her Britannic Majesty's Government at the earliest possible moment, in order to 

 the prevention of any further and graver misunderstanding and the avoidance of any 

 serious interruption to an important industry, I was exceedingly unwilling that the 

 questions arising under the award and those provoked by the occurrences in Newfound- 

 land should be confused with each other, and least of all would I have been willing 

 that the simultaneous presentment of the views of this Government should be construed 

 as indicating any desire on our part to connect the settlement of these complaints with 

 the satisfaction or abrogation of the Halifax award. 



I also deemed it not inadvisable, in the interests of such a solution as I am sure is 

 desired by the good sense and good temper of both Governments, that time should 

 be allowed for the extinguishment of the local irritation, both here and in Newfound- 

 land, which these transactions seem to have excited, and that another fishing season 

 should more clearly indicate whether the rights to which the citizens of the United 

 States were entitled under the Treaty were denied or diminished by the pretensions 

 and acts of the Colonial authorities, or whether their infraction was accidental and 

 temporary. As soon as the violence to which citizens of the United States had been 

 subjected in Newfoundland, was brought to the attention of this Department, I 

 instructed you, on 2d March, 1878, to represent the matter to Her Britannic Majesty's 

 Government, and upon such representation you were informed that a prompt investi- 

 gation would be ordered for the information of that Government. On August 23, 1878, 

 Lord Salisbury conveyed to you, to be transmitted to your Government, the result 

 of that investigation, in the shape of a report from Captain SuUvan, of Her Majesty's 

 ship Sirius. In furnishing you with this report. Lord Salisbury, on behalf of 

 Her Britannic Majesty's Government, said: "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, and that no violence 

 was used by the Newfoundland fishermen, except in the case of one vessel whose master 

 refused to comply with the request which was made to him, that he should desist 

 from fishing on Sunday, in violation of the law of the colony and of the local custom, 

 and who threatened the Newfoundland fishermen with a revolver, as detailed in para- 

 graphs five and six of Captain Sulivan's Report." 



The three breaches of the law thus reported by Captain Sulivan, and assumed by 

 Lord Salisbury as conclusively established, were: i. The use of seines, and the use 

 of them also at a time prohibited by a colonial statute; 2. Fishing upon a day — 

 Sunday — forbidden by the same local law; and 3. Barring fish, in violation of the 

 same local legislation. In addition Captain Sulivan reported that the United States 

 fishermen were, contrary to terms of the Treaty of Washington — "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 possession — their 

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

 situated thereon." Yours, containing this dispatch and the accompanying report 

 was received on 4th September, 1878, and on the 28th of the same month you were 



