Shepherd to Labouchere

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr Elliot's
letter, dated Downing Street, 4th April, stating that you would be
happy to receive Sir George Simpson's report on the extension of the
Reciprocity Treaty with the United States to Vancouver's Island; and
further, that you wish to be informed on what grounds the Directors of
the Hudson's Bay Company require to have the right of Coast and River
Fishery on the North West Coast of America reserved to them.

In reply I have the honor to state that Sir George Simpson's report
may be expected in about three weeks, and will be forthwith communicated
to you.

With reference to the second point, I beg to inform you that the
Directors of the Hudson's Bay Company have no wish to have any right as
against British subjects reserved to them, to which they are not
entitled by their License of Trade, but as their servants are the only
white people inhabiting those Coasts, I inadvertently made use of the
expression "reserved to the Hudson's Bay Company" instead of "to British
subjects."