Part 9 (1/2)

3,000 Newfoundlanders enlisted in the Canadian and other forces (outside Newfoundland), but there is no statistical record of casualties regarding them, although it is known they were heavy.

(2) MONEY, ETC.

Total receipts, Cot Fund[55] $129,200 ” ” Aeroplane Fund 53,487 ” ” Red Cross Fund 151,500 ” ” Patriotic Fund 166,687

A War Loan of $6,000,000 was raised by Newfoundland.

A large quant.i.ty of Red Cross material, etc., was sent from the Dominion during the war to the various organizations overseas, in addition to many thousands of dollars worth of comforts for the troops.

Newfoundland provided the pay and allowances of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment (6,326 all ranks) and made up the difference in pay to bring the Royal (Newfoundland) Naval Reserve to the same scale as that of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, besides equipping the Royal Newfoundland Regiment before proceeding overseas.

FOOTNOTES:

[51] See a letter from the able correspondent of _The Times_ in Newfoundland, November 6th, 1900.

[52] P.T. M'Grath, ”Newfoundland in 1911,” p. 24.

[53] This question has already been referred to several times in the preceding pages (see especially beginning of chap. viii). It may be added here that in March 1906, the Prime Minister of Canada stated that the Government of Newfoundland was fully aware that the Government of Canada was ready to entertain a proposal for the entry of the island into the confederation.

[54] For the statement following the writer is indebted to Sir Edgar Bowring, the High Commissioner of Newfoundland.

[55] Instead of maintaining a hospital overseas, Newfoundland supported 301 beds in addition to 32 in Newfoundland.

CHAPTER X

THE FRENCH Sh.o.r.e QUESTION

It has been impossible in the above pages to avoid reference to the Anglo-French disputes in Newfoundland, but it seemed convenient to postpone a detailed examination of the question to a separate chapter.

No apology is necessary for such a chapter even in a work so slight as the present, for the French Sh.o.r.e question was chronically acute in Newfoundland, and the French claims, like George III.'s prerogative, were increasing, had increased, and ought to have been diminished. The dispute is partly historical, partly legal, and can only be explained by reference to doc.u.ments of considerable age.

The French connection with Newfoundland was encouraged by the nearness of Canada, and in quaint names, such as Bay Facheuse and Point Enragee, it has bequeathed lasting reminders. For centuries the French, like the Dutch, went on giving too little and asking too much.

By the time of Louis XIV. they had in fact established themselves--an _imperium in imperio_--upon the south coast, and William of Orange in the declaration of war against his lifelong enemy recited the English grievances:

”It was not long since the French took licences from the Governor of Newfoundland to fish upon that coast, and paid a tribute for such licences as an acknowledgment of the sole right of the Crown of England to that island; but of late the encroachments of the French, and His Majesty's subjects trading and fis.h.i.+ng there, had been more like the invasion of an enemy than becoming friends who enjoyed the advantages of that trade only by permission.”

The Treaty of Ryswick, in 1697, contained no mention of Newfoundland, and the French were, therefore, left in enjoyment of their possessory claims. In 1710 the splendid genius of Marlborough had brought Louis XIV. to his knees, and the arguments supplied by the stricken fields of Blenheim and Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet, should have made easy the task of English diplomacy. But from a corrupt political soil sprang the Treaty of Utrecht, the first leading instrument in the controversy of which we are attempting to collect the threads. The merits of the dispute cannot be understood without a careful study of Article 13 of the Treaty. It was thereby provided that:

”The island called Newfoundland, with the adjacent islands, shall from this time forward belong of right wholly to Britain, and to that end the town and fortress of Placentia, and whatever other places in the said island are in possession of the French, shall be yielded and given up within seven months from the exchange of the ratifications of this Treaty, or sooner if possible, by the most Christian King to those who have a commission from the Queen of Great Britain for that purpose. Nor shall the most Christian King, his heirs and successors, or any of their subjects, at any time hereafter lay claim to any right to the said island and islands, or to any part of it or them. Moreover it shall not be lawful for the subjects of France to fortify any place in the said island of Newfoundland, or to erect any building there, besides stages made of boards, and huts necessary and useful for drying of fish, or to resort to the said island beyond the time necessary for fis.h.i.+ng and drying of fish. But it shall be allowed to the subjects of France to catch fish and to dry them on land in that part only, and in no other besides that, of the said island of Newfoundland, which stretches from the place called Cape Bonavista to the northern point of the said island, and from thence, running down by the western side, reaches as far as the place called Point Riche.

But the island called Cape Breta, as also all others, both in the mouth of the River St. Lawrence and in the Gulf of the same name, shall hereafter belong of right to the French, and the most Christian King shall have all manner of liberty to fortify any place or places there.”

The Treaty of Paris, in 1763, confirmed this arrangement, and twenty years later the Treaty of Versailles contained the following provision upon the subject:

”The XIIIth Article of the Treaty of Utrecht and the method of carrying on the fishery, which has at all times been acknowledged, shall be the plan upon which the fishery shall be carried on there; it shall not be deviated from by either party; the French fishermen building only their scaffolds, confining themselves to the repair of their fis.h.i.+ng vessels, and not wintering there; the subjects of His Majesty Britannic on their part not molesting in any manner the French fishermen during their fis.h.i.+ng, nor injuring their scaffolds during their absence.” But for the boundaries prescribed by the Treaty of Utrecht (viz. those limited by Cape Bonavista and Point Riche) new boundaries were subst.i.tuted, viz., those limited by Cape St. John round by the north to Cape Ray. The coast thus indicated came to be known as the ”French sh.o.r.e.”

As the declaration annexed to the above treaty was often relied upon by French diplomatists, it may be conveniently set forth in this place: