Telegram Herald

THEY WILL LICK US.

The Bloodthirsty Minister of Canadian Fisheries Says So.

"RELEASE THE ONWARD" OR FIGHT.

Great Britain and Little England Demand Their Rights of the Selfish United States Government.

Ottawa, Sept. 12.—Mr. Foster, Minister of Fisheries, who recently returned from British Columbia, where he has been investigating the seizure of the schooner Onward, seized in Alaskan waters, was interviewed tonight on the Canadian view of the case.

Mr. Foster says the North Pacific matter shows the necessity of coming to a clear understanding with the United States on the subject of territorial waters. It is fortunate that a knowledge of the claim has come before any settlement of the Atlantic fisheries has been made. The whole subject of the Atlantic and Pacific fisheries can be dealt with at once, and the very important interests in the Pacific coast duly protected. The position practically taken by the United States, that all waters which are bounded by no other territory are United States waters, will not do, and we cannot accept any such interpretation. We know our rights and dare maintain them. If trouble comes out of it we are prepared for it. Among the questions involved in the settlement of the affair is that of monetary damages consequent upon a forcible seizure and detention of vessels. The right of the Americans to exclude our fishermen from the high seas or from pursuing their avocation outside of the three-mile limit following the indentations of the coast and accepted as one of the leading principles of the international law, will also have to be settled. We will not stand such an acceptation of the law as this, and imposed by Americans. The question is a broad one. In 1821 Alexander I, then Czar of Russia, which at that date owned or asserted the extensive territorial right to all the water of the Pacific above 51 degrees north latitude and the entire stretch of water was characterized as close, because it lay within Russian territory. The United States at the time was the foremost to oppose this declaration. Later on, however, the same government purchased Alaska and for a consideration of $7,200,000 gave the sole right to fish or trap in the prohibited waters to a private trading company. Protection of the interests of the traders was guaranteed and the seizure of the British vessels was one of the natural results. It must be recollected that the United States at one time vigorously opposed the very principle which they are now attempting to enforce.

Mr. Boutwell, Secretary of the United States treasury in 1867, writing on this question in reply to an inquiry made at that period, expressed the belief that his government did not possess the right to exclude the vessels of fishermen of other nations from the Alaska seas. "But," said the reporter, "if the United States refuses to surrender the Onward in accordance with your demand what then?"

"Then," said the Minister, "it is time that the Canadian government forced her rights. The growth of any unusual privilege by prescription right in such cases must not only be frowned down but stopped at once, and that," continued the Minister, "is just what we propose to do, and we know what we are doing, and have England to back us up. If the Onward is not released you will see lively times."