Montreal Cantor of Sephardic Congregation Lays Claim to Peninsula of Labrador on Basis of Grant from

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

Isaac de la Penha, cantor of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation in Montreal, may settle the dispute of Quebec and Newfoundland for a stretch of land to the dissatisfaction of both.

Both the province of Quebec and Newfoundland are now contending for the right of possession of the peninsula of Labrador which comprises approximately 500,000 square miles. The case is now pending before the Privy Council in London.

When this dispute was brought before the Privy Council, Reverend de la Penha presented a claim for the land, which he stated was granted to his ancestors in 1697 by a decree of William III. The record of this grant is said to be preserved in the archives at Loo, Holland, where the de la Penha family, one of the many Jewish refugee families from Spain, settled during the Inquisition.

Charles Alleyn Taschereau, former registrar of the province of Quebec, who is now in London, was asked by the claimant to secure the original document and submit it as evidence of his right to the land.

Labrador is divided politically between the governments of Canada-Newfoundland and the province of Quebec. The population is approximately 14,500 or about one person to every 35 square miles; it is made up of 3,500 Indians, 2,000 Eskimos and 9,000 whites. The peninsula comprises 511,000 square miles. Recent explorations and surveys have added greatly to the knowledge of this vast region and have shown that much of the peninsula is not a land of desolation but a well wooded country containing latent resources of value in its forests, fisheries and minerals.