I have now received a communication from his excellency in reply,
forwarding copy of an approved minute of council on the subject, from
which it appears that the Canadian Government are unable to give the
necessary assurance until they are empowered to do so by act of
Parliament.
Certified copy of a report of a committee of the
honorable the privy council, approved by his excellency the
Governor-General in council on the 27th August,
1892.
The committee of the privy council have had under consideration
certain dispatches dated 13th July, 1892, and 4th August, 1892, from
Her Majesty’s charge d’affaires at Washington with regard to the
proclamation of the act of last session (55–56 Vic. cap.),
respecting aid by the United States wreckers in the waters of Canada
contiguous to the United States, such dispatches being accompanied
with copies of communications addressed to the Secretary of State
for the United States hearing upon the subject, and urging the
simultaneous issue of proclamations bringing into force on the one
hand, the act of Congress approved on the 24th of May, 1890, of
similar purport, and on the other hand the act of the Canadian
parliament above mentioned.
The minister of railways and canals, to whom the said dispatches were
referred, reports that the act of Congress of the 24th of May, 1890,
amending a previous act of the 19th of June, 1878, contained the
additional proviso that it was “to be construed to apply to the
Welland Canal, the canal and improvements of the waters between Lake
Erie and Lake Huron, and to the waters of St. Marys River and
Canal.”
The Secretary of State for the United States, on the 9th July last,
expressed to Her Majesty’s charge d’affaires at Washington his
desire to receive an assurance that the construction so laid down
will be accepted in the construction of the Canadian act.
In reply, the Secretary of State for the United States appears to
have been informed by your excellency, through Her Majesty’s charge
d’ affaires at Washington, that the Canadian act does not authorize
salvage operations of United States vessels in the Welland
Canal.
A subsequent letter from the Secretary of State for the United States
dated 2nd August, instant, was addressed to Her Majesty’s charge
d’affaires at Washington, in which the Secretary of State observes,
in effect, that the President is powerless under the act to omit the
canal waters, and that he is unable, therefore, to issue his
proclamation of the act until the provisos in question are accepted.
The Secretary of State suggests that though the canal waters may not
be contiguous they are “incidental to waters that are
contiguous.”
The minister of railways and canals also reports that the Canadian
act provides for the exercise of wrecking privileges in waters of
Canada “contiguous” to the United States, the Welland Canal, unlike
the Sault Ste. Marie, lies far inland, and can not by any
construction of the said act, come within the meaning of waters
contiguous.
The minister, therefore, recommends that the Government of the United
States be informed, through the proper channel, that until the
government of Canada is empowered by act of Parliament, it is unable
to grant the assurance desired.
The committee concurring in the foregoing recommendation of the
minister of railways and canals, advise that your excellency be
moved to transmit a copy of this minute, if approved, to Her
Majesty’s chargé d’ affaires at Washington.
Joseph Pope,
Assistant Clerk of the Privy
Council.
