THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13357, 11 December 1906, Page 5

THE NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES.

STRONG STAND BY AMERICA. RIGHTS FIXED BY TREATY. By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright. (Received December 11, 1.15 a.m.) London, December 10. A Blue Book shows that the Secretary of State (Mr. Root) was emphatic in his communications with Great Britain with regard to Newfoundland not being entitled to interfere with America's fishing rights because the treaty of 1818 granted Americans a perpetual right, which is beyond the sovereign right of England to destroy or change. He inferred from Lord Salisbury's statement in 1880 that the American fishermen were only subject to such municipal legislation as existed in 1818. The modus vivendi for the season followed as Sir Edward Grey foresaw difficult negotiations owing to the wide divergence of views, but Newfoundland strongly protested. The Imperial Government then suspended the colonial Act, though the latter had been adopted after consultation with the Home Government.

The Times urges that the Blue Book again shows the absence of machinery for proper consultation between the Motherland and the colonies. ;