Memoran- dum.
4
and para. 7 and to "l'emploi dans l'avenir des engins nuisibles ou dévastateurs des fonds de pêche.” of Mr. Hall's But, according to the information which Her Majesty's Government possess in regard to this point, no method of capture other than the customary fishing with hook and line had been invented in 1783, and none other could therefore have been contemplated at that time.
See para. 12 of Colonial Office letter.
See para. 13 of Colonial
Office letter.
"3
Bultows, traps, and cod-nets have all been introduced at later periods. There were then no 64 engins nuisibles
& or dévastateurs,” the employment of which could have been foreseen, or against which the precaution of a Treaty stipulation could have been taken.
The object of the Treaty of Utrecht was to secure the Island of Newfoundland in full sovereignty to the British Crown, and the restrictions and limitations imposed on the French were intended to prevent any such occupation by them as would be inconsistent with, or in any way tend to impair, that sovereignty. It is in this light that the Declaration attached to the Treaty of Versailles must be read, not, as M. Hanotaux suggests, as simply forbidding destructive modes of exercising the fishery. It definitely prescribes that the method of the fishery is to be that which has always been recognized, and the method now introduced was never either practised or recognized on the Treaty Shore.
Her Majesty's Government must, therefore, in view of the importance of the subject, renew the protest which was made to the French Government in April last; and your Excellency will state to M. Hanotaux, in the most definite terms, that this new departure cannot be recognised or this mode of fishery be protected by Her Majesty's Government. You will, at the same time, inform them that, while Her Majesty's Government cordially acknowledge the conciliatory attitude of the French Admiral on the Fisheries Protection Service during the present season, and the readiness he has shown to co-operate with the British Commodore in preventing and accommodating difficulties which have arisen, it cannot be admitted that this friendly action in any way diminishes the objections to the new departure as a breach of the Treaty and an encroachment by the French on an island of which the undisputed sovereignty belongs to Great Britain, and in respect of which France is bound by a solemn obligation under the provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht not to impair the sovereignty of the British Crown.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
गय
C.O. 885
14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO