711.428/557
Senator Wesley L. Jones to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: Chairman Lodge, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, showed me your letter with reference to the matter of withdrawing the treaty between the United States and the British Empire in relation to the salmon fishing between the State of Washington and British Columbia.
I am glad to note that you contemplate changing this treaty in some particulars with reference to the trial of persons charged with violating its provisions. I also want to suggest that you give further consideration to the question of regulating the taking of these fish. If it is deemed necessary to go into this matter, I want to urge that the treaty provide for an absolute closed season for a definite period of time: for instance for four or five years. This, in my judgment, is the only just and effective way to deal with the situation at the present time. It will be contended by our people, if the treaty comes [Page 239] back in its present form in this respect, that under its terms the Canadians will be especially favored and our people discriminated against; but I believe that our people would be fairly well satisfied with a definite, fixed, closed period of time.
Very respectfully yours,