NORTH ATLANTIC FISHERIES DISPUTE 45 



intrinsically inequitable but internationally injurious; iu that it would 

 discourage conciliatory diplomatic transactions and encourage the 

 assertion of extreme claims in their fullest extent ; 



(c) Because any such relaxations in the extreme claim of Great 

 Britain in its international relations are compensated by recognitions of 

 it in the same sphere by the United States; notably in relations with 

 Prance for instance in 1823, when they applied to Great Britain for the 

 protection of their fishery in the bays on the western coast of Newfound- 

 land, whence they had been driven by French war vessels on the ground 

 of the pretended exclusive right of the French. Though they never 

 asserted that their fishermen had been disturbed within the three mile 

 zone, only alleging that the distiirbanee had taken place in the bays, they 

 claimed to be protected by Great Britain for having been molested in 

 waters which were, as Mr. Rush stated "clearly within the jurisdiction 

 and sovereignty of Great Britain." 



6°. It has been contended by the United States that the words 

 "coasts, bays, creeks or harbours," are here used only to express 

 different parts of the coast and are intended to express and be equi- 

 valent to the word ' ' coast, ' ' whereby the three marine miles would be 

 measured from the sinuosities of the coast and the renunciation 

 would apply only to the waters of bays within three miles. 

 But the Tribunal is unable to agree with this contention : 

 (a) Because it is a principle of interpretation that words in a docu- 

 ment ought not to be considered as being without any meaning if there 

 is not specific evidence to that purpose and the interpretation referred to 

 would lead to the consequence, practically, of reading the words "bays, 

 creeks and harbours" out of the Treaty; so that it would read "within 

 three miles of any of the coasts" including therein the coasts of the bays 

 and harbours; 



(ft) Because the word "therein" in the proviso — "restrictions ne- 

 cessary to prevent their taking, drying or curing fish therein" can refer 

 only to "bays," and not to the belt of three miles along the coast; and 

 can be explained only on the supposition that the words "bays, creeks 

 and harbours" are to be understood in their usual ordinary sense and 

 not in an artificially restricted sense of bays within the three mile belt ; 



(c) Because the practical distinction for the purpose of this fishery 

 between coasts and bays and the exceptional conditions pertaining to the 

 latter has been shown from the correspondence and the documents in 

 evidence, especially the Treaty of 1783. to have been in all probability 

 present to the minds of the negotiators of the Treaty of 1818 ; 



(d) Because the existence of this distinction is confirmed in the same 

 article of the Treaty by the proviso permitting the United States fisher- 

 men to enter bays for certain purposes; 



