Mr. Fish to Sir Edward Thornton
Sir: As several articles of the treaty which has been signed this day, relating to the admission of citizens of the United States to fish within the territorial waters of Her Britannic Majesty on the coasts of Canada, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, cannot come into full operation until the legislation contemplated in that instrument shall have taken place, and as it seems to be in accordance with the interest of both governments, in furtherance of the objects and spirit of the treaty, that the citizens of the United States should have the enjoyment Of that [Page 486] liberty during the present season, I am directed by the President to express to you his hope that Her Majesty’s government will be prepared, in the event of the ratification of the treaty, to make on their own behalf, and to urge the governments of the Dominion of Canada, of Prince Edward Island, and of Newfoundland, to make for the season referred to, within their respective jurisdictions, such relaxations and regulations as it may respectively be in their power to adopt, with a view to the admission of American fishermen to the liberty which it is proposed to secure to them by the treaty. The Government of the United States would be prepared at the same time to admit British subjects to the right of fishing in the waters of the United States, specified in the treaty; but as the admission into the United States, free of duty, of any articles which are by law subject to duty cannot be allowed without the sanction of Congress, the President will, in case the above suggestion meets the views of the British government, recommend and urge upon Congress at their next session that any duties which may have been collected on and after the 1st day of July next on fish-oil and fish, (except fish of the inland lakes and of the rivers falling into the same, and except fish preserved in oil,) the produce of the fisheries of the Dominion of Canada and of Prince Edward Island shall be returned and refunded to the parties paying the same, if a similar arrangement is made with respect to the admission into the British possessions of fish-oil and fish, (with the like exception,) being the produce of the fisheries of the United States.
I have, &c.,