No. 181.
Mr. Bayard to Sir L.
West.
Washington , March 23, 1886.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 19th instant, whereby you inform me that you have been requested by the Earl of Rosebery to ascertain “whether it is intended to give notice to the United States fishermen that they are now precluded from fishing in British North American territorial waters,” and to inform you, in reply, that as full and formal public notification in the premises has already been given by the President’s proclamation of 31st of January, 1885, it is not now deemed necessary to repeat it.
The temporary arrangement made between us on the 22d of June, 1885, whereby certain fishing operations on the respective coasts were not to be interfered with during the fishing season of 1885, notwithstanding the abrogation of the fishery articles of the treaty of Washington, came to an end under its own expressed limitation on the 31st of December last, and the fisheries question is now understood to rest [Page 373] on existing treaties, precisely as though no fishery articles had been incorporated in the treaty of Washington.
In view of the enduring nature and important extent of the rights secured to American fishermen in British North American territorial waters under the provisions of the treaty of 1818, to take fish within the three-mile limit on certain defined parts of the British North American coasts and to dry and cure fish there under certain conditions, this Government has not found it necessary to give to United States fishermen any notification that “they are now precluded from fishing in British North American territorial waters.”
I have, &c.,