No. 189.
Mr. Bayard to Sir L.
West.
My Dear Sir Lionel: A telegram from Eastport, in Maine, to the member of Congress from that district, announces a threat by Dominion collectors of customs to seize American boats if they buy herring for canning in the Dominion weirs.
[Page 382]This additional threatened inhibition of trade relates to the sardine industry, which consists in canning in the United States very small and young herring, which, I am informed, are caught very closely inshore in weirs, in Canadian waters, by the inhabitants and sold to citizens of the United States.
The occupation is carried on solely by Canadian fishermen, along the coasts of their own country, so that the interference suggested is with their freedom of contract to dispose of property lawfully the result of their own labors, because the sale is to citizens of the United States.
It is important that the facts should be made known plainly.
Yours very sincerely,