THE ST. LAWRENCE.

Waikato Times, Volume 103, Issue 17407, 21 May 1928, Page 9

THE ST. LAWRENCE.

CONTROL OF BIG. RIVER. CANADIAN AND AMERICAN RIGHTS

VANCOUVER, April 18. in connection with the projected deepening of the channel of the" St. Lawrence, at a cost of about E30.0UU,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 I nited States is equally insistent on the clue recognition of her rights in the pro posed improved outlet from the hinterland waterway of the Great Lakes. About a hundred years ago the American Government sought to secure from the British Government an amendment of the "natural" right 01 American citizens to use this waterway to the ocean from the undeniably international waters of the Great Lakes and the Upper St. Lawrence. ine British Government stood firm in its resistance to any such claim, and the attempt to secure recognition Of it was eventually abandoned But, while the principle has remained unacknowledged, the practical benefits of tree and equal navigation of the whole Canadian hinterland waterway system ha\e long been enjoyed by American citizens as a result of .various agreements and of the volunteer action of the Canadian Government. There is not, at the present time, the slightest ric sire on the part of Canadians to windraw or limit these navigation rig us in any way. There is, however, a desire 1o take precautions lest, in the process of negotiation for joint development of the waterway, any perpetuation of irrevocable rights should he established in favour of nonCanadians without the full measure of restrictions, safeguards, and compensations to whicli Canada would be entitled under the modern conception of international law.

The Present Position. Free and equal navigation was accorded by the reciprocity treaty of 1854 and was automatically withdrawn when the treaty was denounced by the United States.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 9h. 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 Canadian canals. The upshot of this was that the two treatymaking 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.

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 the port of New York. This claim was never recognised by the United Stales, and was eventually abandoned. The Canadian Government was obliged to withdraw its discriminatory tdlls on the NVelland Canal when America owned what was then the only canal between Superior and Huron, and also imposed discriminatory tolls and completely blocked the whole water-borne 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 obligatory, and that the Canadian Government was entitled to withdraw the privilege of free and. equal navigation at any time.

Price of Surrender. Canada possesses the most important lower reach of an international river, possibly with the exception of the Rhine and the Danube. The distance from tho head of the Great Lakes to the mouth of the St. Lawrence is the same as from the river's mouth to Liverpool. The United States, on the other hand, possesses a vast area of watershed tributary to the St. Lawrence, and has rightly opposed any modification for sovereignty over them, except to allow Canadian citizens injuriously affected by water diversions, such as the Chicago water "steal," to sue in American Courts with the same rights as American citizens.

The present issue, therefore, is that the Dominion'seeks, 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.