Office of the Historian

No. 325.
Mr. Bayard to Sir L. S. Sackville West.

Department of State,
Washington, December 11, 1886.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge your note* of the 7th instant, with which you communicate, by the direction of the Earl of Iddesleigh, a copy of the report of a committee of the privy council of Canada, approved October 26 last, wherein the regret of the Canadian Government is expressed for the action of Captain Quigley, of the Canadian Government cruiser Terror, in lowering the flag of the United States fishing schooner Marion Grimes whilst under detention by the customs authorities, in the harbor of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, on October 11 last.

Before receiving this communication I had instructed the United States minister at London to make representation of this regrettable occurrence to Her Majesty’s minister for foreign affairs, and desire now to express my satisfaction at the voluntary action of the Canadian authorities, which, it seems, was taken in October last, but of which I had no intimation until your note of the 7th instant was received.

I have, etc.,

T. F. Bayard.
  1. Printed, p. 491 Foreign Relations, 1886.↩