§ MR. GOURLEY (Sunderland)asked the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, If any, and what, reply has been received from the Government of the United States, regarding the proposals contained in Lord Salisbury's despatch of the 24th March, for a settlement of the Anglo-American fisheries disputes; whether, seeing that Her Majesty's Government are prepared to agree to Mr. Bayard's proposal of a mixed Commission (whilst in the meantime continuing, without any claim for pecuniary indemnity to Canada, the Treaty of Washington for the current fishery season), they will at once release those vessels which have been seized for alleged violation of the Treaty of 1818, and also indemnify the owners of ships already condemned and forfeited; and, to inquire what answer has been received from the Canadian Government regarding the conduct of the authorities on shore and afloat at Malpeque in refusing to receive the shipwrecked crew and stores of the Dominion Schooner Neskilita, rescued by the American ship 1800 Molly Adams, and again for refusing to supply the master of the same ship, when he put into Port Medway, with either provisions or water, of which he had run short in consequence of having fed for three days seventeen men rescued from the Neskilita?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON) (Manchester, N.E.)No reply has as yet been received from the Government of the United States to Lord Salisbury's despatch of March 24. The hon. Member can scarcely expect Her Majesty's Government to require the Government of Canada to release vessels seized on account of violations of the Treaty of 1818, on the assumption that their proposals will be accepted; or to undertake to indemnify owners of vessels condemned and forfeited in course of law. A complete answer has been received from the Canadian Government to the complaints made by the United States in the case of the Molly Adams. The despatch conveying it, which arrived too late to be included in the Papers recently presented to Parliament, will be communicated to the Government of the United States. It disproves the allegations mentioned by the hon. Member, which he appears to have accepted on the ex parte statement.
§ MR. GOURLEYasked whether the right hon. Baronet had not received a further deposition from the captain of the Molly Adams?
§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONYes; further depositions have been received, and are included in the Papers; but the facts stated by the Government of Canada put the matter in a wholly different light.