1558 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHEBIES ARBITRATION. 



The American negotiators refused to agree to that, and for the 

 reason that it was not in the slightest degree necessary, United States 

 Case Appendix, p. 314, second paragraph on that page : 



" The liberty of taking fish within rivers is not asked. A positive 

 clause to except them is unnecessary, unless it be intended to com- 

 prehend under that name waters which might otherwise be considered 

 as bays or creeks." 



943 If you mean to include bays and creeks in that word " river " 

 then we do not agree, but if you merely mean " rivers " as 

 you say, then it is not necessary at all, because the word " coast " 

 does not include rivers. 



I shall spare the Tribunal the long examination of those negotia- 

 tions which under some other circumstances I might have attempted 

 to inflict upon the Court. 



With regard to the suggested claim that the rights of the French 

 on that coast might have induced the British negotiators to use the 

 word " coast " on Newfoundland, and " coasts, bays, harbours and 

 creeks " afterwards, the American Counter-Case discusses it with 

 great fulness, and again I shall leave the discussion as it was left 

 there. Not one word in the entire negotiations indicated that there 

 was any intention whatsoever of phrasing the language so as to pro- 

 vide against the rights of France, except in the one particular that 

 we were not to dry and cure on the French shore. The French had 

 the right to do that, and it would have been inconvenient to have 

 given rights to the Americans of drying and curing fish there, but 

 that was the only concession that was made. I shall have occasion 

 to speak later, as to the events in 1820 and 1821, and the negotiations 

 which followed and thus a little more concerning the French right. 



Coming then to the meaning of the word " coast," if there can be 

 any doubt about its meaning, Sir Robert Bond at United States 

 Counter-Case Appendix, p. 404, says : 



" There is a prima facie presumption that the word ' coast ' is used 

 throughout the article in the same sense, and as, in the expression 

 ' coasts, bays, harbours, and creeks ' it obviously does not include 

 ' bays, harbours, and creeks ' it would follow that it does not include 

 them when used in connection with Newfoundland. It may be ob- 

 served that while the word is used in connection with Newfoundland 

 in the singular, it is used in connection with the Labrador both in the 

 singular and plural, and it is only as used in the plural that it is con- 

 trasted with ' bays, harbours, and creeks.' I am ready to admit that 

 but for the difficulty arising from the expression ' coasts, bays, har- 

 bours, and creeks ' a right to fish on the coast would prima facie 

 mean a right to fish on any part of the coast, including bays, har- 

 bours, etc., but it seems to me that the construction of the article 

 evidences that there was abundant reason for inserting that ex- 

 pression, and I think that if the words of the Article be taken by 

 themselves the interpretation that I have placed upon them is free 

 from doubt." 



