Mr. West to Mr. Bayard.
Washington, June 20, 1885.
My Dear Mr. Bayard: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your note of yesterday’s date, concerning the proposed temporary arrangement respecting the fisheries, which I am authorized by Her Majesty’s Government to negotiate with you on behalf of the Government of the Dominion of Canada and the government of Newfoundland, to be effected by an exchange of notes founded on your memorandum of the 21st of April last.
The two memoranda which I handed to you on the 13th instant contain, as you assume, the acceptance by the Dominion and the British American coast provinces of the general features of your above-mentioned memorandum, with the understanding expressed on their side that the agreement has been arrived at under circumstances affording prospects of negotiation for the development and extension of trade between the United States and British North America, a contingent understanding to which, as you state, you can have no objection, as you regard it as covered by the terms of yoar memorandum of April 21.
[Page 464]In authorizing me to negotiate this agreement, Earl Granville states, as I have already had occasion to intimate to you, that it is on the distinct understanding that it is a temporary one, and that its conclusion must not be held to prejudice any claim which may be advanced to more satisfactory equivalents by the colonial governments in the course of the negotiation for a more permanent settlement. Earl Granville further wishes me to tell you that Her Majesty’s Government and the colonial governments have consented to the arrangement, solely as a mark of good will to the Government and people of the United States, and to avoid difficulties which might be raised by the termination of the fishery articles in the midst of a fishing season; and also that the acceptance of such a modus Vivendi does not, by any implication, affect the value of the inshore fisheries by the Governments of Canada and Newfoundland. I had occasion to remark to you that while the colonial governments are asked to guarantee immunity from interference to American vessels resorting to Canadian waters, no such immunity is offered in your memorandum to Canadian vessels resorting to American waters, but that the Dominion Government presumed that the agreement in this respect would be mutual. As you accepted this view, it would, I think, be as well that mention should be made to this effect in the notes.
Under the reservations, as above indicated, in which I believe you acquiesce, I am prepared to accept the understanding on behalf of British North America, and to exchange notes in the above sense.
I have, &c.,