WATERWAYS RIGHTS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20184, 28 June 1928, Page 11

WATERWAYS RIGHTS

AN OLD CONTROVERSY CANADA AND UNITED STATES. In connection with projected deepening of the channel of the St. Lawrence, at a cost of about £30,000,000. the age-old controversy of Canadian and American rights to the international waterway is revived. Canada is insisting on a purely Canadian control of the proposed system of canals, which will lie alongside the Canadian part of the river. The United States is equally insistent on the due recognition of h*r rights in the proposed improved outlet from the hinterland waterway of the Great Lakes. About a hundred years ago, thg American Government sought to secure from the British Government an amendment of the “natural” right of American citizens to use this waterway to the ocean from the undeniably international wafers of the Groat Lakes and the Upper St. Lawrence. The British Government strongly resisted any such claim, and it was eventually abandoned. But, while the principle has remained unacknowledged, the benefits of free and equal navigation of the whole Canadian hinterland waterway sjstem have long been enjoyed by American citizens as a result of various reciprocal agreements. There is not, at present, the slightest desire on the part of Canadians to withdraw or limit these navigation rights in any way. There is, however, a desire to take precautions, lest, in in the process of negotiation for joint development of the waterway, any perpetuation of irrevocable rights should be established in favour of non-Cana-dians without the full measure of restrictions, safeguards and compensations to which Canada would be entitled under the modern conception of international law. Old-time Reciprocity Treaty. Fr.ee and equal navigation was accorded by the reciprocity treaty of 1854, and was automatically withdrawn when the treaty was denounced by the United States. When, after the American Civil War, the Alabama claims gave the United States a strong leverage for demands on Great Britain, it was decided to include perpetual navigation rights on the St. Lawrence among the terms to be exacted from the British Government in settlement. Sir John MacDonald, first Canadian Prime Minister, seized on an opportunity, to which the United States could not reasonably object, and which could logically be held to restrain the British Government from giving away any rights in the Caandian canals. The upshot of this was that the two treaty-making Powers agreed merely to urge upon the individual States and the Dominion Government respectively the granting of free and equal navigation in their canals to the citizens of either Power. The British Government. granted perpetual rights of navigation in recognition of any “ natural” right belonging to the Americans, but in return for a similar grant of navigation rights on the lower reaches of certain rivers rising in the Yukon and reaching the ocean through the American territory of Alaska. Disputes Regarding Canals. There have been many disputes about the use of the canals. For instance, Canada claimed the .right to transport goods, not only to the southern end of Champlain Canal, but on through the Hudson to New York. This claim was never recognised by the United States, and was eventually abandoned. The Canadian Government was obliged to withdraw its discriminatory tolls on the Welland Canal when America owned what was then the only canal between Lakes Superior and Huron and also imposed discriminatory tolls and completely blocked the whole waterborne movement of western grain to Canadian ports. In the subsequent controversy, it was agreed that the undertaking of the British Government in regard to the canals was not obligtory, and that the Canadian Government was entitled to withdraw the privilege of free and equal navigation at any time. Canada now socks, as a proper offset to her surrender of 'exclusive control of navigation in the Lower St. Lawrence, a corresponding surrender by the United States of its exclusive control over the water of the international waterway in its own territory. Meantime, pending an agreement, the announcement is withheld of plans for the deepening of the St. Lawrence.