The Notes on the Newfoundland fisheries exchanged between Sir Edward
Grey and the American Ambassador have been published as a Parliamentary paper. The modus vivendi which has been drawn up for the coming winter is very much like that of last year, except that the American claim to the right of using purse-seines has been withdrawn. The new modus vivendi is intended to be temporary, like that of last year, although a great deal of bitterness was caused by the mistaken belief last year that the arrangement was permanent. The really important news now is that there is a good prospect of the troublesome fishery question being submitted to arbitra- tion at the Hague. We could ask for no better method of solution; the question is precisely one for arbitration. The Treaty of 1818 is a vague instrument, and we are sure that justice will be done by arbitration. Neither side to the dispute has a right to expect more than justice. Sir Robert Bond, the Premier of Newfoundland, is reported to have used immoderate language in speaking of the new modus vivendi. Unless misrepresented, be called it "a disgrace to British diplomacy, and a shameful sacrifice of the interests of the people of the Colony." We can only hope that Sir Robert Bond was not guilty of using such language of a solution which Sir Edward Grey has consented to after long and anxious thought, and even then only for the purpose of tiding over one more season till arbitration can do its beneficent work.
