1482 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



the contentions and admissions of the British counsel acting on the 

 Halifax Commission of 1877 must have an important bearing on the 

 construction of the Treaty of 1818. I cannot conceive how any such 

 view can be seriously put forward. The Treaty of Washington was 

 negotiated and entered into in order to secure to the contracting 

 parties privileges in excess of those enjoyed by virtue of the Treaty 

 of 1818. The Halifax Commission was an international arbitration 

 convened to decide whether the United States had received a greater 

 benefit under the Washington Treaty than had Great Britain. The 

 British had claimed a large money consideration for privileges which 

 they alleged the United States had enjoyed under the Washington 

 Treaty in excess of what the British had. All kinds of loose argu- 

 ments could be and were used by counsel on both sides, but surely it 

 will not be seriously contended that the arguments of counsel before 

 the Halifax Commission can affect the interpretation of the Treaty 

 of 1818. The lawyers engaged on that case were doing their best in 

 the interests of their respective clients, and it is not improper or 

 difficult to conclude that the respective counsel would have argued 

 right opposite to what they did if retained by the opposite side." 



SIR CHARLES FITZPATRICK : Sir Robert Bond is not a lawyer. 

 MR. ELDER : No ; he describes himself in one of his speeches as " a 

 humble layman." 



" The Treaty of 1818 was one which gave foreigners certain rights 

 on British soil, rights which should be strictly construed, and no ad- 

 mission, or statement, or argument used by counsel on the Halifax 

 arbitration could, I submit, have the smallest bearing on the inter- 

 pretation of the treaty." 



I am not quite sure that I am correctly informed, but I have been 

 told that our good friend Sir James AVinter was one of those counsel 

 at the Halifax Tribunal concerning whom this criticism was made; 

 I am told that that statement is an error; I am very glad he is re- 

 lieved from that criticism. I mentioned it, however, for the purpose 

 of hoping that the distinguished counsel of Great Britain and of Can- 

 ada and of Newfoundland, in this case, would not be exposed to the 

 same criticism to which counsel for Newfoundland in the Halifax 

 Case were exposed. 



February 26th, 1907 (United States Counter-Case Appendix, p. 

 380) is a petition of 1,000 fishermen of the Ferryland district on the 

 south coast. The Ferryland district is the district along here (indi- 

 cating on map) from Conception Bay down, and therefore some- 

 what removed from the treaty coast, but of course affected by the dep- 

 rivation of the right to sell bait to Americans for use on the banks, 

 and also to ship on board American vessels : 



" That your petitioners are engaged in the cod fishery on the south- 

 ern shore, and until two years ago added to their earnings from that 

 avocation by the sale of bait to American vessels." 



896 You will observe that that is just the other side of the penin- 

 sula which is formed by Fortune Bay on one side and Concep- 



