New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-08-10
THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES
Right of Americans TO use them. mo. IL
To TIE Editor Of The " Y. Tribune:
En- Eridau AM & I25l

| me on the 3lst Of July consisting of the " Pro-
yincial aud Imperial Acts for the Protection Of
the Fisheries Of British North America" are not
entirely to me. | am glad TO see them in
your columns and hope they will appear in every
newspaper in the United States. They show the
! British side Of the case, and are collected and
printed ROp to prove that the Provincial and In
perial Governments have uniformly maintained
that, under the Convention of 1918, our vessels
cannot of right, FISH within tho bays of Her
Naiesty's possessions. But with all Difference,
submit that, instead of proving this, they prove
the very reverse.
The first is an Act of Parliament Of 1919, which
recites the Convention, was passedin consequence
| Of it, and authorizes the seizure of vessels that
violate its stipulations. Now, be it remarked,
that the instruc tions of the Lords of the Admir-.
atty to commanders OF the ships of.war sent upon
the American station tOpreyent aggressions must
| of necessity have always referred to this Act or
been founded upon it, and that these commanders
must have Away 5 had the Act itself before them.
| What, then, has been the course pursued in exc
cutting the law Precisely this-to allow our yes.
sells to fish ererywhere and aAyrhere, in the bays
and outside Of The bays more than three miles from
he shore. know the fact from personal knowl-
! edge. While my home was on the Eastern from
| tier Of the United States, a year did not elapse
without my seeing one or more ships OF the roya
navy employ ed on this service in the Bay of Fun
DIV, and am sure that a case of seizure never
CURED for fishing broai" in that Bay. The same
rule observed in the Bay of Chaeur and
the Gulf Of st. Lawrence. have before me the
report of Capt. Fair, of Her Majesty's ship the
| Champion in 1899, in which he speaks of passing
| fleet of six or seven hundred American vessels
in various positions some pithin the headlands of
bags and some along the shores, but none within
the three mile Introduction. While cruising in the
vicinity of Prince Edwards Island, he states, that
! there was not a single case which called for
our interference or 5rhere ii uas necessary eren
10 recommend caution-Oa the contrary, the Amer-
! leans say that a pr,riiege has been granted 10
Men and that they rW not abuse it," Now, upon
the supposition that Capt. Fair was directed by
the Act Of Parliament in question, to make prize
of our flag rithin the headiaads Of The bays which
he visited during the season, how many hundreds
| of our vessels would he have seized | will ven
ture to affirm, that the thought of capturing the
fishermen found in The bays, never so much as Oc-
CURED to him. Most of the British officers who
have been on the fishing grounds since the passage
| of the Act, have conducted like gentlemen, and
have treated our countrymen kindly; but some
| four or five, whose names may be omitted, would
gladly have INDUCED their hate against " the Y an
KEGS and have seized our vessels upon the slight
est pretence yet, these, well as the more lib
eral, never, in single instance for the entire
period since 1919, have construed the law Of that
wear to authorize interference with such as kept
three miles from the shore.
Besides, how happens it, that if the Kings
Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice
and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,
and Commons in Parliament assembled, meant
to exclude, and IN truth-as far the action Of
enc Government couId-actually did exclude us
from the Bays of Fundy and Chaleur, and similar
large seas, in l8l9-how happens it, ask that, in
1910, twenty. one years afterwdrd an application
was made to the Crown lawyers to give con
struction to the Convention Of 1918 On the
! ground that Parliament had direddy construed
that Convention as Lord Falkland desired it should
be interpreted, why did not the British minister, to
whom his views were communicated for submission
to the legal advisers Of Her Majesty, so state in
wordl That Act was the supreme law OF the
realm and if the commanders Of ships OF the royal
| navy had been instructed year after year. and tor
twenty-one years, to execute it, and to consider it
az a construction Of the Convention, 10 the sense
note contended for, why were every one OF these
commanders so very unfaithfIl TO their duty why
were there no complaints against them on the part
of the Colonial Governors; why was the fact
that their instructions required them to hunt up
n -. fl md
in the bays, unknown to everybody in England
and America!
The second document is an act Of the House of
Assembly Of Nova Scotia, of March, 1896 at
which time the Act Of Parliament Of 1919 was
lust as well known as at the present moment.
| Why. then, with the Imperial Government TO sus
tain them, did not this Assembly in their law,
adopt the exclusive thus, as now pretended,
| authorized and sanctioned seventeen ears previ-
ouslyl They gave authority to certain officers
to ago on board any vessel or boat UtthH any
barbor in the Province, or lowering pittia three
miles Of am Of The coasts or h1r60rS thereof and
stsy on board so long as she might remain withia
such place or distance" They authorized these
officers to require the master Of such vessel or
boat TO depart in a given time, or submit to a
search Of his cargo, &C.; and they provided, that
"ifthe vessel or boat shall be foreign and not naY-
gated according to the laws OF Great Britain and
Ireland and shall have been found fishing or pre-
nor;rg IN fish or 10 have been fishing rHhfE tqree
marine miles of such coasts or h1r5ors' sucn YES
sci or boat and the cargo shall be forfeited now
-. s.a,uts Is entitled &" An act relating to the
Fisheries. and for the prevention Of Illicit trade,
ubv Is the term "bayS" SO studsusy avoided
To have provided that foreign fishing vessels and
;c; trades should be forfeited when found trithtH
n, bays-rithin three miles Of the outer keadlaads
If the bays-would have accomplished the object
in view, as far as legislation could do go, with
single stroke of the pen. But they did not VEN