File No. 573/114.
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador.
Washington, May 25, 1907.
Excellency: Mr. Alexander, the assistant in charge of a division of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and who was on the Newfoundland treaty coast during the last fishing season, has just handed me the following telegram from the master of an American fishing vessel off the Magdalen Islands:
Commander Wakeham, of Canadian fisheries service, refused to allow American schooner Alert to fish in Magdalen Islands waters under register; also refuses to allow us to use traps or purse seine, whether under register or fishing license. Will seize if we set inside 3–mile limit. Please reply immediately. Grindstone, Magdalen Islands.
You will recall that the shores of the Magdalen Islands are included in the fishing grounds which by the treaty of 1818 are declared open to the inhabitants of the United States. The refusal to permit fishing to be conducted from a registered vessel is the same thing which was done by the subordinate officers on the treaty coast of Newfoundland in October, 1905, and was promptly disavowed both by the Government of Great Britain and that of Newfoundland.
I do not understand that the British Government contends that when an American comes upon the treaty coast with an American vessel he can be precluded from fishing because he has an American register rather than an American fishing license. If I am not mistaken in this, I should be glad to have the officers in authority at the Magdalen Islands advised accordingly.
As to the refusal to permit the American fishermen to set traps or use purse seines, I have to reaffirm the position taken in my note of June 30, 1906, that such an attempt by the colonial government to impose conditions and limitations upon the exercise of the American right without the consent of the Government of the United States is contrary to the treaty. The communication to which I refer, containing a discussion of this subject, will be found in the British Blue [Page 534] Book respecting the Newfoundland fisheries, issued in December, 1906, at pages 10 to 15.
The fullness with which the American view on this subject is set forth in that communication makes it unnecessary for me to trouble you by any further presentation of the matter at this time, and I ask your kind consideration of the subject, and that such steps may be taken as to produce a cessation of the interference with the exercise of American fishing rights under the treaty.
I beg you to believe, my dear Mr. Bryce, that I am fully appreciative of the difficulties and embarrassments in which this subject is involved and that I do not wish to be over urgent or insistent. This case arises, however, as such cases generally do, in the form of a subordinate colonial official peremptorily deciding the question of treaty rights for himself and imposing his decision upon the American fishermen by threat of seizure. The fisherman with his vessel on the fishing ground must proceed to fish or be ruined, and the only thing which can save him is to have some affirmative action and to have it taken promptly.
I have, etc.,