Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 6, 1886
No. 169.
Mr. Phelps
to Mr. Bayard.
London , June 5, 1886. [Received June 14.]
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith the copy of a note which I have this day addressed to the Earl of Rosebery, Her Majesty’s principal secretary of state for foreign affairs, on the subject of the Canadian fisheries, embodying the substance of the views which, under instructions from the Department of State, I have already presented to his lordship orally in various interviews and of the arguments adduced in support of the same.
I have, &c.,
Mr. Phelps to Lord Rosebery.
London , June 2, 1886.
My Lord: Since the conversation I had the honor to hold with your lordship, on the morning of the 29th ultimo, I have received from my Government a copy of the report of the consul-general of the United States at Halifax, giving full details and depositions relative to the seizure of the David J. Adams, and the correspondence between the consul-general and the colonial authorities in reference thereto.
The report of the consul-general and the evidence annexed to it appear fully to sustain the point submitted to your lordship in the interview above referred to, touching the seizure of this vessel by the Canadian officials.
I do not understand it to be claimed by the Canadian authorities that the vessel seized had been engaged or was intending to engage in fishing within any limit prohibited by the treaty of 1818.
The occupation of the vessel was exclusively deep-sea fishing, a business in which it had a perfect right to be employed. The ground upon which the capture was made was that the master of the vessel had purchased of an inhabitant of Nova Scotia, near the port of Digby, in that province, a day or two before, a small quantity of bait to be used in fishing in the deep sea, outside the three-mile limit.
The question presented is whether, under the terms of the treaty and the construction placed upon them in practice for many years by the British Government, and in view of the existing relations between the United States and Great Britain, that transaction affords a sufficient reason for making such a seizure and for proceeding under it to the confiscation of the vessel and its contents.
I am not unaware that the Canadian authorities, conscious, apparently, that the affirmative of this proposition could not be maintained, deemed it advisable to supplement it with a charge against the vessel of a violation of the Canadian customs act of 1883, in not reporting her arrival at Digby to the customs officer. But this charge is not the one on which the vessel was seized, or which must now be principally relied on for its condemnation, and standing alone could hardly, even if well founded, be the source of any serious controversy. It would be at most, under the circumstances, only an accidental and purely technical breach of a custom-house regulation, by which no harm was intended, and from which no harm came, and would in ordinary cases be easily condoned by an apology, and perhaps the payment of costs.
But trivial as it is, this charge does not appear to be well founded in point of fact. Digby is a small fishing settlement and its harbor not defined. The vessel had moved about and anchored in the outer part of the harbor, having no business at, or communication with Digby, and no reason for reporting to the officer of customs. It appears by the report of the consul-general to be conceded by the customs authorities there that fishing vessels have for forty years been accustomed to go in and out of the bay at pleasure, and have never been required to send ashore and report when they had no business with the port, and made no landing; and that no seizure had ever before been made or claimed against them for so doing.
Can it be reasonably insisted under these circumstances that by the sudden adoption, without, notice, of a new rule, a vessel of a friendly nation should be seized and forfeited for doing what all similar vessels had for so long a period been allowed to do without question?
It is sufficiently evident that the claim of a violation of the customs act was an afterthought, brought forward to give whatever added strength it might to the principal claim on which the seizure had been made.
Recurring, then, to the only real question in the case, whether the vessel is to be forfeited for purchasing bait of an inhabitant of Nova Scotia, to be used in lawful fishing, it may be readily admitted that if the language of the treaty of 1818 is to be interpreted literally, rather than according to its spirit and plain intent, a vessel engaged in fishing would be prohibited from entering a Canadian port “for any purpose whatever” except to obtain wood or water, to repair damages, or to seek shelter. Whether it would be liable to the extreme penalty of confiscation for a breach of this prohibition in a trifling and harmless instance might be quite another question.
Such a literal construction is best refuted by considering its preposterous consequences. If a vessel enters a port to post a letter, or send a telegram, or buy a newspaper, to obtain a physician in case of illness, or a surgeon in case of accident, to land or bring of a passenger, or even to lend assistance to the inhabitants in fire, flood, or pestilence, it would, upon this construction, be held to violate the treaty stipulations maintained between two enlightened maritime and most friendly nations, whose ports are freely open to each other in all other place and under all other circumstances. [Page 342] If a vessel is not engaged in fishing she may enter all ports; but if employed in fishing, not denied to be lawful, she is excluded, though on the most innocent errand. She may buy water, but not food or medicine; wood, but not coal. She may repair rigging, but net purchase a new rope, though the inhabitants are desirous to sell it. If she even entered the port (having no other business) to report herself to the custom-house, as the vessel in question is now seized for not doing, she would be equally within the interdiction of the treaty. If it be said these are extreme instances of violation of the treaty not likely to be insisted on, I reply that no one of them is more extreme than the one relied upon in this case.
I am persuaded that your lordship will, upon reflection, concur with me that an intention so narrow, and in its result so unreasonable and so unfair, is not to be attributed to the high contracting parties who entered into this treaty.
It seems to me clear that the treaty must be construed in accordance with those ordinary and well-settled rules applicable to all written instruments, which without such salutary assistance must constantly fail of their purpose. By these rules the letter often gives way to the intent, or rather is only used to ascertain the intent.
The whole document will be taken together, and will be considered in connection with the attendant circumstances, the situation of the parties, and the object in view, and thus the literal meaning of an isolated clause is often shown not to be the meaning really understood or intended.
Upon these principles of construction the meaning of the clause in question does not seem doubtful. It is a treaty of friendship and not of hostility. Its object was to define and protect the relative rights of the people of the two countries in these fisheries, not to establish a system of non-intercourse or the means of mutual and unnecessary annoyance. It should be judged in view of the general rules of international comity and of maritime intercourse and usage, and its restrictions considered in the light of the purposes they were designed to serve.
Thus regarded it appears to me clear that the words “for no other purpose whatever,” as employed in the treaty, mean no other purposes inconsistent with the provisions of the treaty, or prejudicial to the interests of the provinces or their inhabitants, and were not intended to prevent the entry of American fishing vessels into Canadian ports for innocent and mutually beneficial purposes, or unnecessarily to restrict the free and friendly intercourse customary between all civilized maritime nations, and especially between the United States and Great Britain. Such, I cannot but believe, is the construction that would be placed upon this treaty by any enlightened court of justice.
But even were it conceded that if the treaty was a private contract, instead of an international one, a court in dealing with an action upon it might find itself hampered by the letter from giving effect to the intent, that would not be decisive of the present case.
The interpretation of treaties between nations in their intercourse with each other proceeds upon broader and higher considerations. The question is not what is the technical effect of words, but what is the construction most consonant to the dignity, the just interests, and the friendly relations of the sovereign powers. I submit to your lordship that a construction so harsh, so unfriendly, so unnecessary, and so irritating as that set up by the Canadian authorities is not such as Her Majesty’s Government has been accustomed either to accord or to submit to. It would find no precedent in the history of British diplomacy, and no provocation in any action or assertion of the Government of the United States.
These views derive great, if not conclusive, force from the action of the British Parliament on the subject, adopted very soon after the treaty of 1818 took effect, and continued without change to the present time.
An act of Parliament (59 George III, chap. 38) was passed June 14, 1819, to provide for carrying into effect the provisions of the treaty. After reciting the terms of the treaty, it enacts (in substance) that it shall be lawful for His Majesty by orders in council to make such regulations and to give such directions, orders, and instructions to the governor of Newfoundland or to any officer or officers in that station, or to any other persons “as shall or may be from time to time deemed proper and necessary for the carrying into effect the purposes of said convention with relation to the taking, drying, and curing of fish by inhabitants of the United States of America, in common with British subjects within the limits set forth in the aforesaid convention.”
It further enacts that any foreign vessel engaged in fishing, or preparing to fish, within three marine miles of the coast (not authorized to do so by treaty) shall be seized or forfeited upon prosecution in the proper court.
It further provides as follows:
“That it shall and may be lawful for any fisherman of the said United States to enter into any such bays or harbors of his Britannic Majesty’s dominions in America as are last mentioned for the purpose of shelter and repairing damages therein and of purchasing wood and of obtaining water, and for no other purpose whatever, subject nevertheless to such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent such fishermen of the [Page 343] aid United States from taking, drying, or curing fish in the said bays or harbors, or any other manner whatever abusing the said privileges by the said treaty and this act reserved to them, and as shall for that purpose be imposed by an order or orders to be from time to time made by His Majesty in council under the authority of this act, and by any regulations which shall be issued by the governor or person exercising the office of governor in any such parts of His Majesty’s dominions in America, under or in pursuance of any such an order in council as aforesaid.”
It further provides as follows:
“That if any person or persons upon requisition made by the governor of Newfoundland, or the person exercising the office of governor, or by any governor or person exercising the office of governor, in any other parts of His Majesty’s dominions in America as aforesaid, or by any officer or officers acting under such governor, or person exercising the office of governor, in the execution of any orders or instructions from His Majesty in council, shall refuse to depart from such bays or harbors; or if any person or persons shall refuse or neglect to conform to any regulations or directions which shall be made or given for the execution of any of the purposes of this act; every such person so refusing or otherwise offending against this act shall forfeit the sum of £200, to be recovered, &c.”
It will be be perceived from these extracts, and still more clearly from a perusal of the entire act, that while reciting the language of the treaty in respect to the purposes for which American fishermen may enter British ports, it provides no forfeiture or penalty for any such entry unless accompanied either (1) by fishing or preparing to fish within the prohibited limits, or (2) by the infringement of restrictions that may be imposed by orders in council to prevent such fishing or the drying or curing of fish, or the abuse of privileges reserved by the treaty, or (3) by a refusal to depart from the bays or harbors upon proper requisition.
It thus plainly appears that it was not the intention of Parliament, nor its understanding of the treaty, that any other entry by an American fishing vessel into a British port should be regarded as an infraction of its provisions, or as affording the basis of proceedings against it.
No other act of Parliament for the carrying out of this treaty has ever been passed. It is unnecessary to point out that it is not in the power of the Canadian Parliament to enlarge or alter the provisions of the act of the Imperial Parliament, or to give to the treaty either a construction or a legal effect not warranted by that act.
But until the effort which I am informed is now in progress in the Canadian Parliament for the passage of a new act on the subject, introduced since the seizures under consideration, I do not understand that any statute has ever been enacted in that Parliament which attempts to give any different construction of effect to the treaty from that given by the act of 59 George III.
The only provincial statutes which, in the proceedings against the David J. Adams, that vessel has thus far been charged with infringing are the colonial acts of 1868, 1870, and 1883. It is therefore fair to presume that there are no other colonial acts applicable to the case, and I know of none.
The act of 1868, among other provisions not material to this discussion, provides for a forfeiture of foreign vessels “found fishing, or preparing to fish, or to have been fishing, in British waters within three marine miles of the coast,” and also provides a penalty of $400 against a master of a foreign vessel within the harbor who shall fail to answer questions put in an examination by the authorities. No other act is by this statute declared to be illegal; and no other penalty or forfeiture is provided for.
The very extraordinary provisions in this statute for facilitating forfeitures and embarrassing defense, or appeal from them, not material to the present case, would, on a proper occasion, deserve very serious attention.
The act of 1883 has no application to the case, except upon the point of the omission of the vessel to report to the customs officer already considered.
It results, therefore, that at the time of the seizure of the David J. Adams and other vessels there was no act whatever, either of the British or colonial parliaments, which made the purchase of bait by those vessels illegal, or provided for any forfeiture, penalty, or proceedings against them for such a transaction, and even if such purchase could be regarded as a violation of that clause of the treaty which is relied on, no law existed under which the seizure could be justified. It will not be contended that custom-house authorities or colonial courts can seize and condemn vessels for a breach of the stipulations of a treaty when no legislation exists which authorizes them to take cognizance of the subject, or invests them with any jurisdiction in the premises. Of this obvious conclusion the Canadian authorities seem to be quite aware. I am informed that since the seizures they have pressed or are pressing through the Canadian parliament in much haste an act which is designed for the first time in the history of the legislation under this treaty to make the facts upon which the American vessels have been seized illegal, and to authorize proceedings against them therefor.
[Page 344]What the effect of such an act will be in enlarging the provisions of an existing treaty between the United States and Great Britain need not be considered here. The question under discussion depends upon the treaty and upon such legislation warranted by the treaty as existed when the seizures took place.
The practical construction given to the treaty down to the present time has been in entire accord with the conclusions thus deduced from the act of Parliament. The British Government has repeatedly refused to allow interference with American fishing vessels, unless for illegal fishing, and has given explicit orders to the contrary.
On the 26th of May, 1870, Mr. Thornton, the British minister at Washington, communicated officially to the Secretary of State of the United States copies of the orders addressed by the British Admiralty to Admiral Wellesley, commanding Her Majesty’s naval forces on the North American station, and of a letter from the colonial department to the foreign office, in order that the Secretary might “see the nature of the instructions to be given to Her Majesty’s and the Canadian officers employed in maintaining order at the fisheries in the neighborhood of the coasts of Canada.” Among the documents thus transmitted is a letter from the foreign office to the secretary of the Admiralty, in which the following language is contained:
“The Canadian Government has recently determined, with the concurrence of Her Majesty’s ministers, to increase the stringency of the existing practice of dispensing with the warnings hitherto given, and seizing at once any vessel detected in violating the law.
“In view of this change and of the questions to which it may give rise, I am directed by Lord Granville to request that you will move their lordships to instruct the officers of Her Majesty’s ships employed in the protection of the fisheries that they are not to seize any vessel unless it is evident and can be clearly proved that the offense of fishing has been committed and the vessel itself captured within three miles of land.”
In the letter from the lords of the Admiralty to Vice-Admiral Wellesley of May 5, 1870, in accordance with the foregoing request, and transmitting the letter above quoted from, there occurs the following language:
“My lords desire me to remind you of the extreme importance of commanding officers of the ships selected to protect the fisheries exercising the utmost discretion in carrying out their instructions, paying special attention to Lord Granville’s observation that no vessel should be seized unless it is evident and can be clearly proved that the offense of fishing has been committed, and, that the vessel is captured within three miles of land”
Lord Granville, in transmitting to Sir John Young the aforesaid instructions, makes use of the following language:
“Her Majesty’s Government do not doubt that your ministers will agree with them as to the propriety of these instructions, and will give corresponding instructions to the vessels employed by them.”
These instructions were again officially stated by the British minister at Washington to the Secretary of State of the United States in a letter dated June 11, 1870.
Again, in February, 1871, Lord Kimberly, colonial secretary, wrote to the governor-general of Canada as follows:
“The exclusion of American fishermen from resorting to Canadian ports, except for the purpose of shelter, and of repairing damages therein, purchasing wood, and of obtaining water, might be warranted by the letter of the treaty of 1818, and by the terms of the imperial act 59 George III, chap. 38, but Her Majesty’s Government feel bound to state that it seems to them an extreme measure, inconsistent with the general policy of the Empire, and they are disposed to concede this point to the United States Government under such restrictions as may be necessary to prevent smuggling, and to guard against any substantial invasion of the exclusive rights of fishing which may be reserved to British subjects.”
And in a subsequent letter from the same source to the governor-general, the following language is used:
“I think it right, however, to add that the responsibility of determining what is the true construction of a treaty made by Her Majesty with any foreign power must remain with Her Majesty’s Government, and that the degree to which this country would make itself a party to the strict enforcement of the treaty rights may depend not only on the literal construction of the treaty, but on the moderation and reasonableness with which these rights are asserted.”
I am not aware that any modification of these instructions or any different rule from that therein contained has ever been adopted or sanctioned by Her Majesty’s Government.
Judicial authority upon this question is to the same effect. That the purchase of bait by American fishermen in the provincial ports has been a common practice is well known. But in no case, so far as I can ascertain, has a seizure of an American vessel ever been enforced on the ground of the purchase of bait, or of any other supplies. On the hearing before the Halifax Fisheries Commission in 1877 this question was [Page 345] discussed, and no case could be produced of any such condemnation. Vessels shown to have been condemned were in all cases adjudged guilty, either of fishing, or preparing to fish, within the prohibited limit. And in the case of the White Fawn, tried in the admiralty court of New Brunswick before Judge Hazen in 1870, I understand it to have been distinctly held that the purchase of bait, unless proved to have been in preparation for illegal fishing, was not a violation of the treaty, nor of any existing law, and afforded no ground for proceedings against the vessel.
But even were it possible to justify on the part of the Canadian authorities the adoption of a construction of the treaty entirely different from that which has always heretofore prevailed, and to declare those acts criminal which have hitherto been regarded as innocent, upon obvious grounds of reason and justice, and upon common principles of comity to the United States Government, previous notice should have been given to it or to the American fishermen of the new and stringent instructions it was intended to enforce.
If it was the intention of Her Majesty’s Government to recall the instructions which I have shown had been previously and so explicitly given relative to the interference with American vessels, surely notice should have been given accordingly.
The United States have just reason to complain, even if these restrictions could be justified by the treaty or by the acts of Parliament passed to carry it into effect, that they should be enforced in so harsh and unfriendly a manner without notice to the Government of the change of policy, or to the fishermen of the new danger to which they were thus exposed.
In any view, therefore, which it seems to me can be taken of this question, I feel justified in pronouncing the action of the Canadian authorities in seizing and still retaining the David J. Adams to be not only unfriendly and discourteous, but altogether unwarrantable.
The seizure was much aggravated by the manner in which it was carried into effect. It appears that four several visitations and searches of the vessel were made by boats from the Canadian steamer Lansdowne, in Annapolis Basin, Nova Scotia. The Adams was finally taken into custody and carried out of the Province of Nova Scotia, across the Bay of Fundy, and into the port of St. John, New Brunswick, and without explanation or hearing, on the following Monday, May 10, taken back by an armed crew to Digby, Nova Scotia. That, in Digby, the paper alleged to be the legal precept for the capture and detention of the vessel was nailed to her mast in such manner as to prevent its contents being read, and the request of the captain of the David J. Adams and of the United States consul-general to be allowed to detach the writ from the mast for the purpose of learning its contents was positively refused by the provincial official in charge. Nor was the United States consul-general able to learn from the commander of the Lansdowne the nature of the complaint against the vessel, and his respectful application to that effect was fruitless.
From all the circumstances attending this case, and other recent cases like it, it seems to me very apparent that the seizure was not made for the purpose of enforcing any right or redressing any wrong. As I have before remarked, it is not pretended that the vessel had been engaged in fishing, or was intending to fish in the prohibited waters, or that it had done or was intending to do any other injurious act. It was proceeding upon its regular and lawful business of fishing in the deep sea. It had received no request, and of course could have disregarded no request, to depart, and was, in fact, departing when seized; nor had its master refused to answer any questions put by the authorities. It had violated no existing law, and had incurred no penalty that any known statute imposed.
It seems to me impossible to escape the conclusion that this and other similar seizures were made by the Canadian authorities for the deliberate purpose of harassing and embarrassing the American fishing vessels in the pursuit of their lawful employment. And the injury, which would have been a serious one, if committed under a mistake, is very much aggravated by the motives which appear to have prompted it.
I am instructed by my Government earnestly to protest against these proceedings as wholly unwarranted by the treaty of 1818, and altogether inconsistent with the friendly relations hitherto existing between the United States and Her Majesty’s Government; to request that the David J. Adams, and the other American fishing vessels now under seizure in Canadian ports, be immediately released, and that proper orders may be issued to prevent similar proceedings in the future. And I am also instructed to inform you that the United States will hold Her Majesty’s Government responsible for all losses which may be sustained by American citizens in the dispossession of their property growing out of the search, seizure, detention, or sale of their vessels lawfully within the territorial waters of British North America.
The real source of the difficulty that has arisen is well understood. It is to be found in the irritation that has taken place among a portion of the Canadian people on account of the termination by the United States Government of the treaty of Washington on the 1st of July last, whereby fish imported from Canada into the [Page 346] United States, and which so long as that treaty remained in force was admitted free, is now liable to the import duty provided by the general revenue laws, and the opinion appears to have gained ground in Canada that the United States may be driven, by harassing and annoying their fishermen, into the adoption of a new treaty by which Canadian fish shall be admitted free.
It is not necessary to say that this scheme is likely to prove as mistaken in policy as it is indefensible in principle. In terminating the treaty of Washington the United States were simply exercising a right expressly reserved to both parties by the treaty itself, and of the exercise of which by either party neither can complain. They will not be coerced by wanton injury into the making of a new one. Nor would a negotiation that had its origin in mutual irritation be promising of success. The question now is, not what fresh treaty may or might be desirable, but what is the true and just construction, as between the two nations, of the treaty that already exists.
The Government of the United States, approaching this question in the most friendly spirit, cannot doubt that it will be met by Her Majesty’s Government in the same spirit, and feels every confidence that the action of Her Majesty’s Government in the premises will be such as to maintain the cordial relations between the two countries that have so long happily prevailed.
I have the honor to be, &c.,