CORRESPONDENCE 437 



made. So regarding the proposal, they are pleased not only to recognize in it an indi- 

 cation that the desire of Her Majesty's Government to arrive at a friendly and speedy 

 settlement of this question is fully reciprocated by the Government of the United 

 States, but also to discern in it the basis of a practical settlement of the difficulty; 

 and I have the honour to request that you will inform Mr. Evarjs that Her Majesty's 

 Government, with a view to avoiding further discussion and future misunderstand- 

 ings, are quite willing to confer with the Government of the United States respecting 

 the establishment of regulations under which the subjects of both parties to the Treaty 

 of Washington shall have the full and equal enjoyment of any fishery which under that 

 Treaty is to be used in common. The duty of enacting and enforcing such regulations, 

 when agreed upon, would, of course, rest with the Power having the sovereignty of 

 the shore and waters in each case. 



As regards the claim of the United States' fishermen to compensation for the injuries 

 and losses which they are alleged to have sustained in consequence of the violent 

 obstruction which they encountered from British fishermen at Fortune Bay on the 

 occasion referred to, I have to state that Her Majesty 's Government are quite willing 

 that they should be indemnified for any injuries and losses which upon a joint inquiry 

 may be found to have been sustained by them, and in respect of which they are 

 reasonably entitled to compensation; but on this point I have to observe that a claim 

 is put forward by them for the loss of fish which had been caught, or which, but for 

 the interference of the British fishermen, might have been caught by means of strand 

 fishing, a mode of fishing to which, under the Treaty of Washington, they were not 

 entitled to resort. 



The prosecution by them of the strand fishery being clearly in excess of their 

 Treaty privileges. Her Majesty's Government cannot doubt that, on further considera- 

 tion, the United States' Government wiU not be disposed to support a claim in respect 

 of the loss of the fish which they had caught, or might have caught, by that process. 



I am, etc. 

 (Signed) Granville 



INSTRUCTION FROM MR. EVARTS TO MR. LOWELL, FEBRUARY 4, 1881 > 



Department of State, Washington, February 4, 188 1 

 Sir, — The communication from Her Britannic Majesty's secretary of state for 

 foreign affairs. Lord Granville, of October 27, 1880, respecting the disturbance which 

 occurred at Fortune Bay on the 6th of January, 1878, was duly received in your 

 dispatch No. 81 of October 28, 1880. 



As the separation of the questions raised by that occurrence and the method of 

 their solution were general suggestions on the part of Her Britannic Majesty's Govern- 

 ment, I had naturally supposed that this dispatch would have been followed by such 

 definite propositions as this Government could either accept or decline — the more 

 so as I had (on June 12th, 1880), in reply to your telegraphic Report of a conversation 

 with Lord Granville, authorized you to say that "the President will be quite ready 

 to entertain any considerations which may be presented to the Secretary of State to 

 relieve the question of the fisheries from its present difficulties." 



If however, as circumstances would seem to indicate, I am to consider this com- 

 munication as a preliminary inquiry from Lord Granville for the purpose of learning 



' Appendix, U. S. Case, p. 718; Appendix, British Case, p. 290. 



