§ SIR FREDERICK STANLEY (Lancashire, N., Blackpool)asked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether he is able to give to the House any further information as to the recent fishery disputes in North America; and, whether Her Majesty's Government are ready to offer their assistance towards the friendly settlement of such questions between the Dominion 1832 Government of Canada and the United States Government as have now arisen, or may hereafter arise, under the terms of the Convention of 1818, or otherwise?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. OSBORNE MORGAN) (Denbighshire, E.)The circumstances under which the American schooner David J. Adams was seized by the Canadian Authorities were detailed by me to the House on May 13 in an answer to the hon. Member for Central Sheffield (Mr. Howard Vincent). They were given in a telegram received from the Governor General of Canada on the preceding day, which I read to the House. A despatch which we have subsequently received substantially confirms this telegram. Since then another American vessel, the Ella Doughty, is stated in the newspapers to have been seized; but we have as yet no official information on the subject of this seizure. Her Majesty's Government have been informed by telegram that a despatch from our Minister at Washington, embodying a communication from the United States Government on the Canadian Fishery Question, is on its way to this country. That communication, when it arrives, will be considered by the Government in a friendly spirit and with a due regard for the complete maintenance of the fishery rights of our Canadian fellow-subjects. I hope, therefore, before long to be in a position to give the House further information on the subject.