QUESTION SIX. 253 



This note was a formal answer to Mr. Root's communication of 

 June 30, 1906, which insisted in detail upon the contentions of the 

 United States. The answer had been " deferred * * * until the 

 arrival in this country of the Premier of Newfoundland to attend 

 the Imperial Conference." It contained no reference to the Bond 

 theory. 6 



Undoubtedly Sir Robert Bond had fully developed his contention 

 in his conferences with the British Government. Indeed this is 

 made certain by Governor McGregor's letter to Lord Elgin of Sep- 

 tember 2, 1907, in which he stated that his lordship was aware that 

 " my Prime Minister has consistently disputed the right of American 

 fishermen to fish or trade in the bays, harbours, and creeks of the west 

 coast," etc.* 



The circumstances, under which Premier Bond secured the assent 

 of the British Government to putting it forward as a belated conten- 

 tion in this arbitration, are set out in the Counter Case of the United 

 States.* The insistence which made it a question before this Tribunal 

 after the ninety years of uniformly adverse practical construction 

 and after it had failed to produce conviction in any other mind than 

 that which conceived it, is persuasive of the confidence with which it 

 was held by the premier, but of nothing else. 



It is under such conditions that the Question is submitted to this 

 Tribunal. 



BESTTLTS OF THE BOND CONTENTION. 



The best test of the validity of a contention is an examination of 

 the results which flow necessarily from it. If they are reasonable, the 

 contention may well be deemed worthy of consideration; if they are 

 absurd and preposterous, the opposite is true. The United States 

 submits that the results, which would necessarily flow from the adop- 

 tion of the Bond contention, are absurd and preposterous. The argu- 

 ment for the United States might well be rested on the consideration 

 of these results alone. 



U. S. Case, Appendix, 978. U. S. Case, Appendix, 1014. 



U. S. Case, Appendix, 1004. * U. S. Counter Case, 103-104. 



