No. 207.
Mr. Bayard to Mr. Hardinge.
Washington, August 9, 1886.
Sir: I regret that it has become my duty to draw the attention of Her Majesty’s Government to the unwarrantable and unfriendly treatment, reported to me this day by the United States consul-general at Halifax, experienced by the American fishing schooner Battler, of Gloucester, Mass., on the 3d instant, upon the occasion of her being driven by stress of weather to find shelter in the harbor of Shelburne, Nova Scotia.
She was deeply laden and was off the harbor of Shelburne when she sought shelter in a storm and cast anchor just inside the harbor’s entrance.
She was at once boarded by an officer of the Canadian cutter Terror, who placed two men on board.
When the storm ceased the Battler weighed anchor to proceed on her way home, when the two men placed on board by the Terror discharged their pistols as a signal, and an officer from the Terror again boarded the Battler and threatened to sieze the vessel unless the captain reported at the custom-house.
The vessel was then detained until the captain reported at the custom-house, after which she was permitted to sail.
The hospitality which all civilized nations prescribe has thus been violated and the stipulations of a treaty grossly infracted.
A fishing vessel, denied all the usual commercial privileges in a port, has been compelled strictly to perform commercial obligations.
In the interests of amity, I ask that this misconduct may be properly rebuked by the Government of Her Majesty.
I have, &c.,