LABRADOR LAWSUIT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20039, 4 March 1927, Page 10

LABRADOR LAWSUIT

DECISION OF PRIVY COUNCIL. NEWFOUNDLAND’S CLAIM FAVOURED. (Pre«* Awoolatlon—By ielegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, March 2. The Privy Council’s judgment in the dispute between Canada and Newfoundland over the ownership of largo areas of Labrador favours tho Newfoundland claim, with the exception of two small tracts. Tho Daily Mail says that the decision gives Newfoundland 120,000 square miles, valued at £50,000,000. The Times, in a leader, says that tho material result of the decision is very groat, but it is surpassed iu importance by the moral consequences to the Empire of reference to the Privy Council. It is a great tribute to the reputation of the Privy Council won among sister communities overseas, and shows, not only confidence in British justice, but an instinctive sense of the unity underlying our legal conceptions.—Sydney San Cable. A message received on October 21, 1926, stated: The Privy Council has opencu the hearing of a remarkable lawsuit between Canada and Newfoundland, fur which it has taken 25 years to prepare the records. These have m w been reduced to 4200 pages of print, yitli innumerable maps. The verdict involves the territorial ownership of largo areas of Labrador, and tho Privy Council has to decide the precise meaning of the word “coast.” The struggle is for the ivsomces of timber and water in the hinterland of Labrador, which will bo of immense value alike to Quebec and Newfoundland. Sir John Simon, opening the case on behalf of Newfoundland, intimated that the problem went back to 1670, when Charles 11. conferred a charter on the Hudson Bay Company.