CANADA AND TREATIES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 36, 11 August 1923, Page 14

CANADA AND TREATIES

VIEWS OF UNITED STATES,

The recent action of the Canadian Go.

:; vernment in insisting on an "independ-;__.-_ent" treaty with the United States te;r garding, the Halibut Fisheries has

"■ ."attracted more attention in Great Bri_.tAin r and in some of the overseas ■"■ "dominions than it has in 'Canada,

;^— declares the Ottawa correspondent of 'r~--ine Melbourne "Argus." In a, leading :r/.:.iarticle, the "Toronto Saturday Night," ■a-very influential weekly publication,. • ;eays :—"Those Canadians who have

given any attention whatever to the

■-- * matter at all merely regard the insist!r");. -?° °f Cannda that air. Eriiest La."X.i.'lpointe, Minister of Fisheries, alone sign the treaty on our behalf, IjT^SKa rather nauseating political gesture. • ~-~*lji^ the Press jubilation has been coliir^.Sifed to 'a few parochial blowhards. The :C^3!J?rage rational Canadian feels that the •V-'foeaiy would have been all the better ::-:^if'the proffered signature of the Bri.'."TMtish Ambassador at Washington had ;;■ :been accepted. Americans directly ■;* .interested would certainly regard the -•■ • document with more respect if it carried I-: I..thevjmperial seal. In thafi- case they ; ;."T.vftuld have more Tiesitation about break-

;;■.;..ing ior ignoring the treaty, as they ••' .suiely will whenever it ' suits their Whatever jibes the Ameri:*^33ns may utter against Great Britain, ■-'-" they.cherish at bottom a very profound -." respect for her. A treaty with Can;i a& from which Great Britain has ;.' been officially excluded will be as ■■-. ■ binding in their eyes as the treaty with '.;■ Colombia or any weak South American nation." The same paper points but - that the Washington Government itself would not have accepted the signature Of Mr. Lapointe as legal and. binding but for special, powers conferred uooh ij; him by tile CroVn, not merely • * through the .-Government of- Canada, ,£ Kit through the Secretary o? State \t foy the Colonies—in other words, the jj| British {government.