No. 215.
Mr. Seward
to Sir Edward Thornton.
Washington, August 27, 1878.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that a dispatch, dated the 20th July, has been received from the consul of the United States at Victoria, British Columbia, inclosing a communication, under date of the 6th [Page 353] ultimo, from the owners of the steamboat Nellie, which plies regularly on the Stickine River, complaining that certain restrictions have been imposed upon United States steamers navigating that river which are not applied to British vessels, and which, in their opinion, virtually result in prohibiting all American vessels from carrying freight or passengers thereon. The complaint of the owners of the Nellie is based upon the following statement of facts:
Vessels clear from Port Wrangel to Glenora, where the Dominion custom-house is located, and where duties on foreign goods are paid. Twelve miles above Glenora is Telegraph Creek, the head of navigation, where goods are landed and forwarded to the Cassiar mines. When the navigation is difficult between Glenora and Telegraph Creek, the Nellie has been accustomed to unload at Glenora and proceed with part of the cargo to Telegraph Creek, returning and transporting the residue to the same point by successive trips. These successive trips of the Nellie, or any American vessel, in order to carry forward to their ultimate destination, by successive portions, such cargoes or parts of cargoes as may have been unladen at Glenora, have been expressly forbidden by the customs authorities at Ottawa under an instruction bearing date of the 6th of May last; and it is alleged in this instruction that “this course is not allowed to Canadian vessels in any similar circumstances in the United States.” It is further stated in the instructions referred to that “the general exaction as to the right to navigation by both nations is not open to question, but the right must always be exercised with due regard to the customs laws and regulations.”
The question having been submitted to the Secretary of the Treasury for his consideration and decision, a reply was received on the 23d instant from the Acting Secretary to the effect that the prohibition of the Canadian customs authorities is in conflict with the stipulations of the second paragraph of article 16 of the Treaty of Washington. These stipulations grant the free navigation of the Stickine River for the purposes of commerce, “subject,” it is true, “to any laws and regulations of either country within its own territory”; but it is at the same time stipulated that the laws and regulations of either country shall not be inconsistent with such privilege of free navigation. He adds that it appears to the department that any Canadian customs regulation which allows an American steamer to carry forward a full cargo from Glenora to Telegraph Creek on a good stage of water, but forbids the same steamer, at a low stage of water, to carry forward its cargo in portions by successive trips, is inconsistent with such privilege of free navigation of the Stickine River, and that therefore the Canadian regulation is forbidden by the terms of the Treaty; that the question whether the United States would grant the same privilege to Canadian vessels on other rivers in United States territory is irrelevant; but so far as the Stickine is concerned, should a similar necessity arise for a shipment of the entire cargo by successive trips upon that portion of the river embraced in the territory of the United States, this country would be constrained by the terms of the Treaty to grant the privilege.
I have the honor to bring the foregoing facts and considerations to your attention, in the confident hope that the proper course will be taken by Her Britannic Majesty’s Government in the Dominion of Canada to remove a restriction which this government cannot but regard as an interference with the free navigation of the Stickine River, as stipulated in the treaty of Washington.
I have, &c.,