436 APPENDIX 



In the first place, I desire that there should be no possibility of misconception as 

 to the views entertained by Her Majesty's Government respecting' the conduct of 

 the Newfoundland fishermen in violently interfering with the United States' fisher- 

 men, and destroying or damaging some of their nets. Her Majesty's Government 

 have no hesitation in admitting that this proceeding was quite indefensible, and is 

 much to be regretted. No sense of injury to their rights, however well founded, could, 

 under the circumstances, justify the British fishermen in taking the law into their 

 own hands, and committing acts of violence; but I will revert by and by to this feature 

 in the case, and will now proceed to the important question raised in this controversy, 

 whether, under the Treaty of Washington, the United States' fishermen are bound 

 to observe the fishery regulations of Newfoundland in common with British subjects. 



Without entering into any lengthy discussion on this point, I feel bound to state 

 that, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, the clause in the Treaty of Wash- 

 ington which provides that the citizens of the United States shall be entitled, "in 

 common with British subjects," to fish in Newfoundland waters within the limits of 

 British sovereignty, means that the American and the British fishermen shall fish 

 in these waters upon terms of equality; and not that there shall be an exemption of 

 American fishermen from any reasonable regulations to which British fishermen are- 

 subject. 



Her Majesty's Government entirely concur in Mr. Marcy's Circular of the 28th 

 March, 1856. The principle therein laid down appears to them perfectly sound, and 

 as appUcable to the fishery provisions of the Treaty of Washington as to those of the 

 Treaty which Mr. Marcy had in view. They cannot, therefore, admit the accuracy 

 of the opinion expressed in Mr. Evarts' letter to Mr. Welsh of the 28th September, 

 1878, "that the fishery rights of the United States conceded by the Treaty of Washing- 

 ton are to be exercised wholly free from the restraints and regulations of the Statutes 

 of Newfoundland," if by that opinion anything inconsistent with Mr. Marcy's principle 

 is really intended. Her Majesty's Government, .however, fully admit that, if any 

 such local Statutes could be shown to be inconsistent with the express stipulations, 

 or even with the spirit of the Treaty, they would not be within the category of those 

 reasonable regulations by which American (in common with British) fishermen ought 

 to be bound; and they observe, on the other hand, with much satisfaction, that Mr. 

 Evarts, at the close of his letter to Mr. Welsh of the ist August, 1879, after expressing 

 regret at "the conflict of interests which the exercise of the Treaty privileges enjoyed 

 by the United States appears to have developed," expressed himself as follows: 



"There is no intention on the part of this [The United States'] Government that 

 these privileges should be abused, and no desire that their full and free enjoyment 

 should harm the colonial fishermen. 



"While the differing interests and methods of the shore fishery and the vessel 

 fishery make it impossible that the regulation of the one should be entirely given to 

 the other, yet if the mutual obligations of the Treaty of 1871 are to be maintained, 

 the United States' Government would gladly co-operate with the Government of Her 

 Britannic Majesty in any effort to make those regulations a. matter of reciprocal 

 convenience and right, a means of preserving the fisheries at their highest point of 

 production, and of conciliating a community of interest by a just proportion of advan- 

 tages and profits." 



Her Majesty's Government do not interpret these expressions in any sense deroga- 

 tory to the sovereign authority of Great Britain in the territorial waters of Newfound- 

 land, by which only regulations having the force of law within those waters can be 



