9517.
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T།། །།
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.
885
SIR,
No. 855.
(NEWFOUNDLAND.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Temple, September 12, 1873. In drafting our former report of the 10th instant, we have confined ourselves entirely to the question asked by the Colonial Office.
But in reading the paper, we have thought that Mr. Fish must have some private reason for objecting to the proviso as to a close time, which the Act of Newfoundland contains, and for asking a guarantee from the Imperial Government that the suspension of the laws shall be "real and effective."
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If the United States are ready to admit a close time as binding upon the fishermen of the two countries, under the Articles 18 and 19 of the Treaty, the words of the proviso are mere surplusage, and it is not easy to see why the proviso should be objected to, and the suspension of the proviso requires the guarantee of the Imperial Government.
Further, the proviso having been made, if its effect is now suspended or the proviso be withdrawn, will not the United States be able to argue with some force, when it suits their purpose, that a close time was never a restriction within the terms of the Treaty ?
In point of fact, Mr Fish comes very near, if not quite, up to that contention now. The effect of that construction would be that Newfoundland and other British North American fisheries would be ruined by the fishery being open all the year round.
Nor could the English retaliate with any effect by continuing their fishing on the coasts of the United States to the 39th degree, looking to the relative value of the two fishing grounds.
For these reasons we should have advised against the framing of the Proclamation had that question arisen.
With reference to the required guarantee, it may be, but we doubt it, that Mr. Fish only means to put some further pressure upon Her Majesty's Government, but we are not aware of any precedent for a similar guarantee, and we think the Imperial Govern- ment may not, consistently with its own dignity, guarantee to a foreign Government the observance of the laws of a Colony.
If those laws are not observed, the Imperial Government may properly be required to enforce their observance.
To require a guarantee is to suppose beforehand that the Imperial Government may allow the laws to become unreal and ineffective.
The Hon. R. H. Meade,
&c.
&c.
We are, &c. (Signed) J. D. COLERIDGE.
J. PARKER DEANE.
U 16978-848.
25.-5/86,
• No. 851.
11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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