ARGUMENT OF SIR JAMES WINTER. 969 



NINETEENTH DAY: TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1910. 

 The Tribunal met at 10 o'clock a. m. 



THE PRESIDENT : Will you continue, Sir James ? 



SIR JAMES WINTER: Before continuing my argument I wish to 

 correct a misapprehension which may have been caused by an answer 

 that I made to one of the arbitrators yesterday to the question 

 whether the French had been actually catching fish on their treaty 

 coasts. And I am afraid that my answer may have been to the effect 

 that they had not been catching fish on that part of the coast. If I 

 answered apparently to that effect it was because I was thinking of 

 cod-fish, and it was not present to my mind at the moment that the 

 French undoubtedly do catch fish of other kinds in the territorial 

 waters in that part of the country. They have to fish for bait, and 

 do fish for fish of all kinds, and recently they have started a new 

 industry the lobster fishery, which they claim to have had the 

 right to do under the original terms of their treaty. Therefore, if I 

 did use the expression or did make the statement to the effect that 

 they do not catch any fish, I meant cod-fish. 



I may further add in this connection that when I spoke so definitely 

 and clearly and positively, as it may appear, with regard to the 

 French catching cod-fish on the coast of that part of the island, it 

 may possibly be discovered, and constitute a discovery, or it may be 

 a fact that cod-fish to a very small extent may have been caught by 

 the French sometimes, in the bays, creeks, and harbours. But it is 

 not material for the purposes of our contention in this case whether 

 they did or not. 



Our contention here is that the Americans, when the treaty was 

 being negotiated, did not contemplate fishing in the bays, creeks or 

 harbours for cod-fish. And the fact of whether the French did 

 catch a few cod-fish in their waters would have no material bearing 

 in arriving at a conclusion upon the question of fact. That is all: 

 the question of fact is whether at the time of the negotiation of the 

 treaty the Americans contemplated the catching of cod-fish in their 

 treaty waters on the west coast of Newfoundland. That is the ques- 

 tion. And the fact that the French may have caught a few cod-fish 

 down on that part of the coast would, I submit, have no material effect 

 upon the determination of this question, for the reasons that will 

 develop more fully as I proceed with the examination of the evidence 

 that I shall ask the Court to consider. 



I had commenced, but had not gone far yesterday in the examina- 

 tion into the circumstances connected with the negotiations between 

 the Commissioners, the Plenipotentiaries, for the conclusion of this 

 treaty. Then it was near the hour of adjournment, and there was 



