Several informal talks I have had with Sir Ambrose Shea have enabled me
to formulate the views of this Government upon the proposition made in
behalf of the Dominion and the Province of Newfoundland, and I take
pleasure in handing you herewith a memorandum embodying the results. If
this suits, I shall be happy to confirm the arrangement by an exchange
of notes at your early convenience.
memorandum.
The legislation passed by the Congress of the United States, act of
March 1, 1873 for the execution of the fishery articles of the
treaty of Washington, has been repealed by the joint resolution of
March 3, 1883, the repeal to take effect July 1, 1885. From that
date the effects of the fisheries articles of the treaty of
Washington absolutely determine, so far as their execution within
the jurisdiction of the United States is concerned, and without new
legislation by Congress modifying or postponing that repeal the
Executive is not constitutionally competent to extend the reciprocal
fisheries provisions of the treaty beyond the 1st of July next, the
date fixed by the action of Congress.
Mr. West’s memorandum of March 12, 1865, suggests the mutual
practical convenience that would accrue from allowing the fishing
ventures commenced prior to July 1, 1885, to continue until the end
of the season for fishing of that year, thus preventing their abrupt
termination in the midst of fishing operations on the 1st of
July.
[Page 462]
It has been, moreover, suggested on the part of the Province of
Newfoundland and of the Dominion of Canada, that in view of the
mutual benefit and convenience of the present local traffic,
consisting of the purchase of ice, bait, wood, and general ship
supplies by the citizens of the United States engaged in fishing
from the inhabitants of the British American fishing coast, the
usual operations of the fishing season of 1885 should be continued
by the fishing vessels belonging to citizens of the United States
until the end of the season of that year and that the local
authorities of Newfoundland and of the Dominion of Canada, in a
spirit of amity and good neighborhood, should abstain from molesting
such fishermen or impeding their progress or their local traffic
with the inhabitants incidental to fishing during the remainder of
the season of 1885, and all this with the understanding that the
President of the United States would bring the whole question of the
fisheries before Congress at its next session in December, and
recommend the appointment of a commission in which the Governments
of the United States and of Great Britain should be respectively
represented, which commission should be charged with the
consideration and settlement, upon a just, equitable, and honorable
basis, of the entire question of the fishing rights of the two
Governments and their respective citizens on the coasts of the
United States and British North America.
The President of the United States would be prepared to recommend the
adoption of such action by Congress with the understanding that in
view and in consideration of such promised recommendation there
would be no enforcement of restrictive and penal laws and
regulations by the authorities of the Dominion of Canada or of the
Province of Newfoundland, against the fishermen of the United States
resorting to British American waters between the 1st of July next
and the close of the present year’s fishing season; the mutual
object and intent being to avoid any annoyance to the individuals
engaged in this business and traffic, and the irritation or
ill-feeling that might be engendered by a harsh or vexatious
enforcement of stringent local regulations on the fishing coast
pending an effort to have a just and amicable arrangement of an
important and somewhat delicate question between the two
nations.
Public knowledge of this understanding and arrangement can be given
by an exchange of notes between Mr. West and myself, which can be
given to the press.
