§ MR. A. C. MORTONI beg to ask he Under Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been called to a Petition which was presented 317 to the Newfoundland Assembly by Mr. James R. Hayes in March last, claiming inquiry and compensation with regard to the closing of his three lobster factories in 1891 by Sir Baldwin Walker, and which inquiry had boon refused on the ground that it was an Imperial question; and whether the British Government will inquire into the matter?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. S. BUXTON,) Tower Hamlets, PoplarThe Petition has not been brought before the Secretary of State officially, but it appears from the newspaper which my hon. Friend has handed to me that in the winter of 1891, after the modus vivendi had been in force for a year, and while negotiations for its renewal were in progress, Mr. Hayes, as he alleges, was induced to erect these factories by a reassuring telegram from the Colonial Prime Minister. His claim for compensation was, therefore, rightly made against the Colonial Government. He has no claim against Her Majesty's Government, as the factories wore built after the modus vivendi had been entered into, and, therefore, with full knowledge that the right to build them was in dispute.