Governor Sir W. MacGregor to the Earl of Elgin.
My responsible advisers request me to transmit following message:
With reference to your telegram of the 19th instant, for the reasons that have been fully set forth in previous minutes, ministers regret they are unable to become consenting parties to modus vivendi with the United States Government. They entirely dissent from the views expressed by United States Government in respect to usage of purse seines and their effect upon the herring fishery, but, as stated in dispatch from his excellency the governor to the secretary of state for colonies of date 7th instant, in which ministers fully concurred, if His Majesty’s Government consent to their use by American fishermen, then, while fully recognizing the evils likely to result, this government will be obliged, in justice to the people of this colony, to pass a regulation removing the prohibition of the usage of purse seines, so that competition with Americans may be possible for local fishermen.