711.428/593
Memorandum by the Assistant Solicitor for the Department of State (Vallance)
Sir Douglas Hazen,2 of Canada, and Sir Auckland Geddes, the British Ambassador, called at the Department this morning and signed the Sockeye Salmon Treaty with the Secretary of State. The Treaty as signed to-day is identical with the one previously signed by Mr. Lansing, Mr. Lindsay, and Sir Douglas Hazen,3 except for changes in the provisions of Article 2 which will make it impossible to try American citizens in Canada for violation of the regulations attached to the Treaty, after they have been tried and acquitted in this country.
Mr. Sydney Smith, of the Diplomatic Bureau, had charge of the arrangements for signing the Treaty, and has prepared letters transmitting the Treaty to the President and from the President to the Senate. Mr. Smith has stated that he would prepare a letter to Senator Lodge relative to the minutes of the Fisheries Conference which Mr. Carpenter4 suggested should be published as a Senate [Page 389] Document in connection with the consideration of the Treaty. Mr. Smith also stated that he would notify the Secretary of Commerce that the Treaty had been signed and had been forwarded to the President for transmittal to the Senate.
Sir Douglas Hazen stated that it was very desirable, if possible, to put the Treaty in effect this year so that salmon would be protected in July when they go up the Fraser River, through the State of Washington into Canada, to spawn. I called his attention to the fact that Congress was making plans to adjourn on June 5 and that if adjournment was had on that date, it seemed improbable that the Treaty would be given consideration and ratified before that date. However, I stated that the Department would do what it possibly could to expedite the consideration and approval of the Treaty by the Senate.
Sir Douglas Hazen stated that the Treaty and regulations attached to it could be put in effect in Canada without delay, upon receipt of notice that this Government had ratified it.
- Chairman of the Canadian section, International Fisheries Commission.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1919, vol. i, p. 229.↩
- Of the Office of the Solicitor for the Department of State.↩