CO885-(11-13) — Page 176

11804.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

minimum C.O.

885

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

MY LORD,

No. 870.

(NEWFOUNDLAND.)

LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.

We are honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Lord Enfield's

Temple, November 5, 1873. letter of the 31st ultimo, stating that on the 22nd ultimo* we favoured your Lordship with our Report on various points submitted to us in Mr. Hammond's letters of the 6th instant respecting the Newfoundland fisheries and the questions in dispute between this country and France.

66

"

$6

That after recapitulation of the letters above referred to, our Report states at the 5th paragraph, The words of the treaties and of the engagements made by this country seem to us to give the French a right of uninterrupted fishery of all kinds of "fish along the sea coast, but do not give them any right of fishing in any of the

rivers."

That we were aware, from the correspondence so recently before us, that the French Government claim not only the uninterrupted but the exclusive right of fishing on the so- called "French shore" of Newfoundland, which claim is based to a great extent upon the wording of the British Declaration signed on the same day as the Definitive Treaty between Great Britain and France, the 3rd September, 1783, and which states "His Britannic Majesty will take the most positive measures for preventing his subjects from interrupting in any manner by their competition the fishery of the "French during the temporary exercise of it which is granted to them upon the coast "of the island of Newfoundland."

06

That we were also aware that the question of the right of French subjects to exclusive fishery upon the so-called French shore irrespective of the question whether concurrent fishery might not be carried on as long as it did not interrupt the operations of the French fishermen has been more than once before the Law Advisers of the Crown.

That on the 30th of May 1835, in answer to a reference to a Board of Trade letter of 12th May 1824 on this question, the Law Officers reported that "having taken into consideration the above-mentioned letter from the Board of Trade, together with the treaties to which it refers, we are of opinion that the subjects of France have the exclusive right of fishery on the part of the coast of Newfoundland specified in the 5th Article of the Definitive Treaty signed at Versailles on the 3rd September 1783.'"

That we should find in the accompanying volume the Report in extenso as well as the Board of Trade letter to which it refers, which papers had not then been before us, although the Report was alluded to at page 8 of the printed memorandum drawn up in the Foreign Office, which was again enclosed (also alluded to in the same place and printed in full at page 60), as we should see somewhat modified the previous one.

64 a

That your Lordship is desirous of ascertaining the precise meaning which you may attach to the opinion contained in our Report above referred to that the words of the treaties and of the engagements made by this country seem to give the French right of uninterrupted fishery" of all kinds of fish along the sea coast and whether, in fact, we consider that the French and English fishermen have a concurrent right of fishing on the coast in question, as long as the English fishermen do not in any way interfere with or interrupt the French fishing operations, or whether we are of opinion that the French fishermen can properly claim the right of exclusive fishing to the exclusion of the British and without regard to the above conditions.

In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have the honour to

Report

That in our opinion the French have not the right of exclusive fishing in the full sense

of those words, which would make every act of fishing on the part of the British illegal as contrary to the Treaty and Declaration.

But the French have the right of exclusive fishing in the sense that their fishing operations are not to be interfered with or interrupted by the English. For instance,

0 16978.-895.

85.---5/86.

* No. 867.