Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 6, 1886

No. 228.
Mr. Bayard to Sir L. West.

Department of State,
Washington, October 27, 1886.

Sir: I inclose copies of two letters received at this Department from George Steele, president of the American Fishery Union at Gloucester, Mass.

The object of these letters is to obtain authentic information of the administration of Canadian laws regulating the sale and exportation of fresh herring from Grand Manan Island and its vicinity, a trade which, the writer avers, has been carried on almost exclusively in American vessels for many years.

By the statements of the letter of Mr. Steele dated October 25, it appears that although the vessels employed in this trade are duly registered in their home port as fishing vessels, yet that so far as the proposed trade is concerned, they are not manned nor equipped, nor in any way prepared for taking fish, but their use is confined to the carriage of fish as merchandise to ports in the United States, a commercial transaction pur et simple.

May I ask the favor of an early response to the inquiries propounded by Mr. Steele?

I have, &c.,

T. F. BAYARD.

[Inclosures in note of October 27, 1886.]

1. Copy of letter from George Steele, October 18, 1886. For inclosure 1 see No. 274, p. 526.

2. Copy of letter from George Steele, October 25, 1886. For inclosure 2 see No. 276, p. 527.