The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador ( Spring Rice )
Excellency: By your note No. 370 of the 8th ultimo you were so good as to inform me, with reference to the previous correspondence on the subject, that the Canadian Government are agreeable to a conference between representatives of this Government and representatives of the Government of Canada for the consideration of pending questions concerning the fisheries on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and that the Canadian Government are prepared to recommend the appointment of two Canadian representatives as soon as the United States representatives have been appointed.
I have now the honor to inform you that Dr. Hugh M. Smith, the Commissioner of Fisheries, and Mr. Edwin F. Sweet, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce, have been designated as the representatives of the United States at the proposed conference. I shall be grateful if you will kindly advise me, as early as may be possible, of the names of the representatives of Canada. I am of the opinion that the question as to the time and place for holding the conference may be safely left for determination by the representatives of the two Governments.
In announcing to you the names of the representatives of this Government I deem it proper to state, in order that there may be no misunderstanding, that it is the understanding of this Government that the representatives of the United States and the representatives of Canada are to be empowered merely to reach, if possible, a mutually satisfactory understanding as to the pending questions concerning the fisheries on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and to report the result of their deliberations to their Governments as a [Page 438] basis for the subsequent negotiation of a formal agreement between them.
I have [etc.]