990 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



since the making of the treaty, except in so far as they have a 

 direct bearing upon the question of the meaning of the parties. If 

 the meaning was in doubt, subsequent facts might throw a light upon 

 the meaning of the words in the article under discussion. But, our 

 case is, that the meaning of the words is clear, that being so, there 

 is no necessity, and it is not permissible to go outside of the meaning 

 of the words as they appear on the face of the document. We have 

 come down to a point where the parties came to terms, signed their 

 agreement, and we have not only the agreement itself before us, 

 but everything that took place prior to the signing. Now, what did 

 they mean? In order to decide this question, as we submit, satis- 

 factorily and properly, the proper course would be to suppose or 

 to imagine that the treaty had been made yesterday, and that we 

 were called upon to-day to interpret it in the light of everything 

 that had occurred up to that moment, in the light of all the sur- 

 rounding circumstances up to that moment, and we say. that that is 

 the position of this case, and that everything that followed after- 

 wards is of no relevance, and can be of no importance whatever. As- 

 suming that at that time we have established that there could be no 

 doubt of the meaning of the parties, subsequent events or doings or 

 sayings or writings which might be construed as pointing to a dif- 

 ferent conclusion should not be entertained, unless they have such a 

 direct and close and positive bearing upon the meaning of the words 

 themselves as to lead to a different conclusion. 



THE PRESIDENT: May I ask you, Sir James, whether you apply 

 what you have just said also to a statement I find in the extracts 

 from the journals of the Legislative Assembly of Newfoundland in 

 1845? It is on p. 1068 of the American Appendix: 



595 " By the Convention of 1818 the Americans of the United 

 States are allowed to fish along all our coasts and harbors 

 within three marine miles of the shore." 



Do you consider that also of no relevance? 



SIR JAMES WINTER: Certainly; most decidedly; upon the prin- 

 ciple I have laid down. 



THE PRESIDENT: Then I have understood you, Sir? 



SIR JAMES WINTER: Clearly. That statement, even without any 

 assertion of mine, is clearly, on the face of it, made by some person 

 who did not know the facts and who did not understand the facts. 



My contention is that that does not help us as being a statement 

 made subsequently by parties who could not have had accurate in- 

 formation as to the intention of the parties, and which is manifest 

 from other statements in the same document which was drawn up, 

 adopted, and published without a correct knowledge of the facts and 

 circumstances as they existed and as they exist even up to the present 



