ARGUMENT OF SAMUEL J. ELDER. 1557 



October (British Case Appendix, 1889). It appeared in the second 

 British proposal the 13th October (British Case Appendix, 1893) ; 

 and it appears in the treaty. 



I am not going into the negotiation any further than to call the 

 attention of the Tribunal to the first British proposal, the one of the 

 6th October. 



In the first place, the American negotiators had used these very 

 words that appear in the treaty " coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks " 

 in regard to Labrador, and the British negotiators evidently saw no 

 point in them, because they used exactly the same word in their pro- 

 posal concerning Newfoundland that they did concerning Labrador. 

 They used simply the word " coast," with regard to Newfoundland 

 and with regard to Labrador; showing that they did not conceive 

 that by the use of the word " coast " they could cut down the Amer- 

 ican right by excluding the bays. 



And, the second thing to which I wish to call attention is in the 

 United States Case Appendix, p. 312. This is the British proposal 

 of the 6th October, 1818, the second paragraph : 



"And it is further agreed that nothing contained in this article 

 shall be construed to give to the inhabitants of the United States any 

 liberty to take fish within the rivers of His Britannic Majesty's ter- 

 ritories, as above described; arid it is agreed, on the part of the 

 United States, that the fishermen of the United States resorting to 

 the mouths of such rivers shall not obstruct the navigation thereof, 

 nor wilfully injure nor destroy the fish within the same, either by 

 setting nets across the mouths of such rivers, or by any other means 

 whatever." 



You will notice that in the first paragraph they used the words 

 " western coast " of Newfoundland and the " eastern coasts " of Lab- 

 rador, or " the southern and eastern coasts of Labrador, which extends 

 from Mount Joli to Huntingdon Island; and it is further agreed 

 that the fishermen of the United States shall have the liberty to dry 

 and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays," and so forth. 



Great Britain desired to limit that right of fishing by precluding 

 our fishermen from the rivers; to provide specifically that there 

 should be no right to take fish in the rivers. 



Well, where do rivers empty ? They empty into bays. They never 

 empty into the open exposed sea-coast. You take this very Humber 

 River of which we were speaking this morning. The river comes 

 down and empties into the Bay of Islands, '20 miles at least above the 

 exit to the bay. 



Now, when the British negotiators asked to have it made sure that 

 rivers were not to be included in their grant of " coast," they under- 

 stood that " coast " included bays. 



