[Inclosure in note of October 12,
1886.]
Extract from a certified copy of a report of a
committee of the honorable the privy council approved by his
excellency the administrator of the Government in council on the
16th August, 1886.
The committee of the privy council have had under consideration a
dispatch, dated 15 July, 1886, from the secretary of state for the
colonies, in which he asks for a report from the Canadian Government
on the subject of an inclosed note from Mr. Secretary Bayard to the
British minister at Washington relating to certain warnings alleged
to have been given to United States fishing vessels by the
subcollector of customs at Canso. Mr. Bayard states:
- First. That the masters of the four American fishing
vessels of Gloucester, Mass., Martha C. Bradley, Rattler,
Eliza Boynton, and Pioneer, have severally reported to the
consul-general at Halifax that the subcollector of customs
at Canso had warned them to keep outside an imaginary line
drawn from a point three miles outside Canso head to a point
three miles outside St. Esprit on the Cape Breton
coast.
- Second. That the same masters also report that they were
warned against going “inside an imaginary line drawn from a
point three miles outside North Cape, in Prince Edward
Island, to a point three miles outside East Point on the
same island.
- Third. That the same authority informed the masters of the
vessels referred to that they would not be permitted to
enter Bay Chaleur.
The minister of marine and fisheries, to whom the dispatch and
inclosures were referred, observes that the instructions issued to
collectors of customs authorized them in certain cases to furnish
United States fishing vessels with a copy of the circular hereto
attached, and which constitutes the only official “warning”
collectors of customs
[Page 416]
are
empowered to give. It was to be presumed that the subcollector of
customs at Canso, as all other collectors, would carefully follow
out the instructions as received, and that therefore no case such as
that alleged by Mr. Secretary Bayard would be likely to arise.
The minister states, however, so soon as the dispatch above referred
to was received he sent to the subcollector at Canso a copy of the
allegations, and requested an immediate reply thereto.
The subcollector, in answer, emphatically denies that he has ordered
any American vessel out of any harbor in his district or elsewhere,
or that he did anything in the way of warning, except to deliver
copies of the official circular above alluded to, and states that he
boarded no United States vessel other than the Annie Jordan and the
Hereward, and that neither the Martha C. Bradley, Rattler, or
Pioneer, of Gloucester, have, during this season, reported at his
port of entry. He, with equal clearness, denies that he has warned
any United States fishing vessels to keep outside the line drawn
from Cape North to East Point, alluded to by Mr. Secretary Bayard,
or that they would not be permitted to enter Bay des Chaleurs.
The minister has every reason to believe the statements made by the
subcollector at Canso, and, taking into consideration all the
circumstances of the case, is of the opinion that the information
which has reached the Secretary of State does not rest upon a
trustworthy basis.
With reference to the concluding portion of Mr. Bayard’s note, the
minister observes that the occasion of the present dispatch, which
has to deal mainly with questions of fact, does not render it
necessary for him to enter upon any lengthened discussion of the
question of headland limits.
