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18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Fifteenth Day.
14 May 1907.
MAIL SERVICE TO AUSTRALIA AND NEW
ZEALAND riâ
CANADA. NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY.
160
Mr. LLOYD GEORGE: We accept that.
CHAIRMAN: Is that accepted by the Conference?
The resolution was agreed to.
NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERY.
CHAIRMAN: Yesterday I received a notice from Sir Robert Bond that he wished to bring a subject before the Conference, and Sir Edward Grey has attended for that purpose; but I must remark that is of a character which, following what we have done already in this Conference, we must consider in private as it involves Treaties and other questions.
His Resolution is as follows :—
"After the most deliberate consideration of the subject in dispute between His Majesty's Government and the Government of the United States of America in respect to the Newfoundland Fisheries, and with every desire to recognise to the fullest extent the rights of the United States under the Treaty of 1818, and to view the claims put forward on behalf of the United States citizens in the most favourable light, this Conference is of opinion that His Majesty's Government cannot possibly admit that the United States, under the Treaty of 1818, has any right to engage Newfoundland fishermen to fish for them within British jurisdiction in contravention of the Bait Act of 1887; and that when a common right of fishing is exercised within the jurisdiction of the Dominion of Canada or Newfoundland, those countries have absolute authority to make regulations to prevent the injury or destruction of the industry, and, provided there be no discrimination in carrying out such regula- tions, to insist upon their observance by all parties concerned. They are further of opinion that if His Majesty's Government failed to support those Colonies in this position, it would constitute a serious infringement of the autonomous rights of the Colonies. Therefore any arrangement made with the United States Govern- ment in respect to the North American Fisheries should necessarily embrace a recognition of these principles."
Sir ROBERT BOND: Does that mean that there will be no record whatever?
CHAIRMAN: We can keep a record but should not publish it.
Sir ROBERT BOND: Am I to understand that it will appear in the regular proceedings hereafter?
CHAIRMAN: Not as published. There have been two subjects which we have dealt with in that way, and it always has been done in these Conferences, and we could not undertake to discuss it on any other terms. Will you state your question, Sir Robert?
:
Mr. DEAKIN Might it not be possible, after Sir Robert Bond has made a statement of his case, that it or the greater part of it could appear without anything else?
CHAIRMAN: We will hear it first.
161
Mr. DEAKIN: If Sir Robert proposes to state the question, and if, as I Fifteenth Day. assume, it relates to the old dispute in connection with his fisheries, I suspect
14 May 1907.
it has all been made public by him before in speeches to his own Legislature, or on other occasions. IIe is, or may be, adding little or nothing to what has NEWFOUNDLAND been already published. If, therefore, he is only re-stating here what is already published, it might be an advantage to have it put on record.
say.
Sir EDWARD GREY: I do not know what Sir Robert Bond is going to All I have seen is a copy of the resolution he sent yesterday. This matter, which has really ceased to be a local matter, is becoming a very serious one indeed, and I should object very much to the Conference publishing anything about it without also expressing some opinion as to what the policy ought to be with regard to the settlement of the dispute. That is to say, the dispute has now arrived at a stage where it is becoming acute between two great nations, and if the Conference is to express any opinion at to be settled. It is a all, it ought to include a statement of how the thing very serious point. Perhaps the best thing would be for Sir Robert Bond to make his statement.
Sir ROBERT BOND: I would be glad if a decision in reference to my remarks be held in abeyance until after I have made them, because I do not think there will be anything of a vexatious character, or that it will occasion offence to anybody.
CHAIRMAN: We take it, subject to any further decision, as private.
do
Sir ROBERT BOND: Yes. Lord Elgin and gentlemen: In proposing this resolution for the consideration and acceptance of this Conference, not intend to make more than a passing reference to the conditions that appertained in Newfoundland under the modus vivendi entered into between His Majesty's Government and the Government of the United States of America in October 1906. All the facts are well known to His Majesty's Government and to the Colonial Members of this Conference, for I have taken occasion to place in the hands of the latter a concise history of the same. Any comments upon what transpired under that arrangement, or upon its terms, or the manner of its accomplishment, might be regarded as vexatious, It will, therefore, only be and as not germane to the resolution before us. necessary for me to briefly outline the Treaty relations that have existed and that still exist between His Majesty's Government and that of the United States of America; the obligations that are imposed upon American subjects under the existing Treaty and the contentions of the Government of the United States of America now before His Majesty's Government, and which, I submit, are sufficiently grave to warrant the most serious consideration of this Conference, inasmuch as they challenge the binding effect of Colonial laws upon foreign subjects when coming within the jurisdiction of a Colonial Government. The question involved in the resolution submitted affects the Colony that I represent principally and most vitally, but it also affects every Colony represented in this Conference.
I have had the privilege of discussing the question involved in this resolution with Sir Edward Grey, of the Foreign Office, with your Lordship, and Mr. Winston Churchill, and have stated, as clearly as I know how to do 80, what I believe to be the rights of those I represent. That statement I desire to repeat here and now, for if it is held by this Conference to be unreasonable or unduly exacting, I shall be prepared to modify it to meet what may be considered reasonable and right.
Now, then, with regard to the Treaty relations between His Majesty's Government and the Government of the United States of America.
I 49270,
SH
FISHERY.