were not wanting. The complaints
of the Newfoundlanders became more frequent, more insistent, and more
emphatic. They pointed out that the French virtually claimed a
monopoly of an 800-mile shore, which was entirely British of right,
that in consequence they interfered with the development of the mining
industry, and the extension of railways, and that thereby they were
seriously hampering the progress of the colony. The case put forward
by the colonists was historically strong, and there was much to be
said for the contention that they were entitled to everything they
claimed: on any view they could rightly complain of a cruel injustice,
so long as the indolence or incompetence of English diplomacy suffered
a debatable land to survive in the teeth of an undebatable argument.

In August, 1898, at the request of the Newfoundland Government, a
Royal Commission was appointed by Mr Chamberlain, and sent out the
following year, for the purpose of inquiring into the whole question
of French treaty rights. A good deal of evidence was given by local
colonists of acts of French aggression, and of consequent injury in
person and property. But the report remained unpublished. Such
aggression was in keeping with the instructions issued in 1895 by the
French Premier and Foreign Minister to the commanders of the French
warships on this station: "To seize and confiscate all instruments of
fishing belonging to foreigners, resident or otherwise, who shall fish
on that part of the coast which is reserved for our use"--instructions
that amounted to an arbitrary assertion of territorial sovereignty.
And yet the actual interests of France were very meagre: thus in 1898,
on a coastline where some 20,000 Newfoundlanders were settled in 215
harbours, there were only 16 French stations and 458 men on the
800-mile shore; in 1903 only 13 stations and 402 men.[57]

In 1901 when the vexed question came once again before the
Newfoundland Legislature, the Government declared that in renewing the
_modus vivendi_ for the following year, they did so only in
consideration of the obstacles then in the way of the Imperial
Government to securing a satisfactory settlement of the whole matter.

In 1904 the Newfoundland Government refused to relax the Bait Law any
more; and France then consented to enter into the notable agreement,
which once for all abolished the inveterate grievances and
difficulties arising out of the "French shore" question. In
consider