Office of the Historian

File No. 711.4216L/66

The British Ambassador to the Secretary of State

British Embassy,
Washington, January 23, 1914.

My dear Mr. Secretary: You will recollect that on May 19 last you submitted to me a protest regarding the flooding of lands adjacent to the Lake of the Woods on the American side of the boundary. On June 17 the Canadian Government forwarded to me a reply to this protest setting forth the action already taken in the premises by the competent authorities. I find that through a clerical oversight this reply was never transmitted to you, and I therefore now beg to enclose copy of a despatch from the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario to the Canadian Secretary of State, dated June 9 last giving information as to the action taken.

In this connection, I venture to ask you for certain information relating to the Lake of the Woods. My attention has recently been drawn to statements made in various quarters to the effect that similar protests regarding damage caused by floods from this Lake have in past years been received by my Government through the Department of State. Inasmuch as I have as yet been unable to discover in the archives of the Embassy any trace of such a protest having been made, I should be much obliged if you could inform me whether there is any record in your Department of representations having been made either to this Embassy or to the Foreign Office in London on this subject.

I am [etc.],

Cecil Spring Rice
[Page 295]
[Inclosure]

The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario to the Secretary of State of Canada

Government House,
Toronto, June 9th, 1913.

Sir: I have the honour to refer to your despatch of the 28th ultimo, No. 1550, with reference to water levels of the Lake of the Woods, and to inform you that I am advised by my Deputy Minister of Public Works that the matter has already received the attention of his Department.

The caretaker of the dam at Keewatin reported by wire on May 12 giving reading of gauge of Lake of the Woods as 100, and on May 15, by letter, 99.90, the number of logs out of the dam was reported as 103.

The highest reading of the gauge during the present season was 100.2 on May 11; this level is not above the normal for the month of May.

The United States Government in the year 1908 requested that the minimum elevation of 7.2 be maintained on the gauge at Warroad Harbour in Minnesota. This elevation would be approximately equivalent on 100.9 on the Keewatin gauge.

I have [etc.],

J. M. Gibson