962 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



SIR JAMES WINTER : There is some evidence, and I shall refer to it. 

 I shall refer to it, before I finish, and satisfy the Court upon that 

 the question put by the President, that the word " coast " there is in 

 the singular number. 



THE PRESIDENT : But leaving aside the question where the cod-fish 

 are and where they may be caught, viewing only the grammatical 

 sense of the phrase : " any of the unsettled bays, harbors and creeks 

 of the southern part of the coast of Newfoundland," in article 1, does 

 not that express the idea that the bays, harbours, and creeks form a 

 part of the coast? 



SIR JAMES WINTER : In that particular phrase ? 



THE PRESIDENT: Yes. 



SIR JAMES WINTER : In that particular sentence, yes. 



THE PRESIDENT: Yes. 



SIR JAMES WINTER: It may be so read. Of course it must be so 

 read. 



THE PRESIDENT: Is it not an indication that, in the foregoing sen- 

 tence, the words " that part of the coast " included the bays, harbours, 

 and creeks? 



SIR JAMES WINTER: We submit that if it is such an indication, it is 

 a very faint indication, and ought not to prevail over the more obvious 

 meaning of the word in the other sense. If there were more am- 

 biguity about it, the use of the word might be taken as an indication 

 of that idea ; but our contention is that the word is so free from am- 

 biguity that an indication of that sort ought not to come in; that 

 the word " coast " is distinguished there from " bays, harbors and 

 creeks." I will quite admit what I think I have already said, but I 

 will say it again, that if the word stood alone, if it were not for the 

 context, the immediate context, the immediate association in the very 

 same sentence, in the very same clause, of " bays, harbors and creeks " 

 in addition to " coasts," it would be open to the other side, of course, 

 to contend that " coasts " did include " bays, harbors and creeks " ; 

 and they would have a very strong contention, and we might have to 

 look to other facts and circumstances, in order to give the right inter- 

 pretation to the word. It might or it might not have the other mean- 

 ing. But the deliberate distinction and difference that is made be- 

 tween " coast " and " coasts " in regard to Labrador, and " coast " in 

 relation to the west part and the south part of Newfoundland is so 

 plain and obvious that it must have been in the minds of the nego- 

 tiators when they made the treaty. 



I was following up the reason, the particular, substantial reason in 

 fact for the making of the distinction. At the time of the making of 

 that treaty, the negotiators had in view particularly the negotiators 

 on behalf of the United States the securing, as a sine qua non of the 

 coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks of Labrador for the purpose of fish- 



