the said possessions.

In the year 1886 notice was received by the representatives of our
Government that our fishermen would no longer be allowed to ship their
fish in bond and free of duty through Canadian territory to this
country, and ever since that time such shipment has been denied.

The privilege of such shipment, which had been extended to our
fishermen, was a most important one, allowing them to spend the time
upon the fishing grounds which would otherwise be devoted to a voyage
home with their catch, and doubling their opportunities for profitably
prosecuting their vocation.

In forbidding the transit of the catch of our fishermen over their
territory in bond and free of duty the Canadian authorities deprived us
of the only facility dependent upon their concession and for which we
could supply no substitute.

The value to the Dominion of Canada of the privilege of transit for
their exports and imports across our territory and to and from our
ports, though great in every aspect, will be better appreciated when
it is remembered that for a considerable portion of each year the St.
Lawrence River, which constitutes the direct avenue of foreign commerce
leading to Canada, is closed by ice.

During the last six years the imports and exports of British Canadian
Provinces carried across our territory under the privileges granted by
our laws amounted in value to about $270,000,000, nearly all of which
were goods dutiable under our tariff laws, by far the larger part of
this traffic consisting of exchanges of goods between Great Britain and
her American Provinces brought to and carried from our ports in their
own vessels.

The treaty stipulation entered into by our Government was in harmony
with laws which were then on our statute book and are still in force.

I recommend immediate legislative action conferring upon the Executive
the power to suspend by proclamation the operation of all laws and
regulations permitting the transit of goods, wares, and merchandise in
bond across or over the territory of the United States to or from
Canada.

There need be no hesitation in suspending these laws arising from the
supposition that their continuation is secured by treaty obligations,
for it seems quite plain that Article XXIX of the treaty of 1871, which
was the only article incorporating such laws, terminated the 1st day of
July, 1885.

The article itself declares that its provisions shall be in force "for
the