711.428/704
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador ( Geddes )
Excellency: With further reference to your Embassy’s note No. 667 of August 29, 1922, I have the honor to inform you that this Government would be glad to conclude with His Majesty’s Government a convention which will deal with the Pacific halibut fishery alone in the manner contemplated by Article VII of the draft treaty concerning port privileges of fishing vessels, protection of halibut fishery, lobster fishing and tariff on fresh fish, which was transmitted to this Department with your Embassy’s note No. 815 of November 10, 1919.6
Using Article VII of the draft prepared in 1919 as a basis, I have caused to be prepared a draft of a convention for the protection of the Pacific halibut fishery, copies of which are enclosed.7
The departure of greatest consequence in the enclosed draft from the proposals with regard to the halibut fishery embraced in Article VII of the draft prepared in 1919 is in the provision in Article I which relates to the disposal required to be made of halibut that may be taken during the proposed close season by fishermen engaged in fishing for other species of fish. It appears to this Government that large opportunity for evasion of the prohibition against fishing for halibut during the close season and escape from the penalties which will be prescribed for violations of the prohibition would exist under the provisions which were proposed in the draft of 1919 permitting halibut taken incidentally while fishing for other species of fish during the close season to be retained and landed and to be sold fresh in the port where landed or to be shipped or transported from the port of landing, provided they are first frozen, canned, or cured. In lieu of these provisions the draft which I herewith present provides in Article I that halibut that may be taken incidentally when fishing for other fish during the season when fishing for halibut is prohibited may be used for food for the crew of the vessel by which they are taken and that any portion thereof not so used shall be landed and immediately turned over to officers of the Department of Commerce of the United States or of the Ministry of Marine and Fisheries of the Dominion of Canada, who will be duly authorized to receive and sell them and required to pay the net receipts into the public treasuries. It is believed that this procedure will operate as an efficient deterrent of evasions of the close season because under it the opportunity for [Page 676] private profit by the sale of halibut taken during the close season is removed.
In Article III of the draft transmitted herewith provision is made for the appointment of an international fisheries commission of the character which would have been appointed under Article IV of the Convention for the Protection of the Sockeye Salmon of the Fraser River System and which under the provisions of Article VII of the draft treaty concerning port privileges of fishing vessels, protection of halibut fishery, lobster fishing and tariff on fresh fish would have been charged with the supervision of the investigation of the halibut fishery, if those two proposed conventions had been perfected. It is believed that the provisions of Article III of the draft enclosed herewith for the appointment of this commission and the investigation into the life history of the Pacific halibut fishery meet the suggestions which were made in your Embassy’s note No. 667 of August 29, 1922, with reference to the appointment of such a commission and the making of an investigation and in these particulars would carry out the recommendations of the American–Canadian Fisheries Conference, 1918.
By Article I of the enclosed draft, the term after which the close season may be modified or suspended by a special agreement would be three years instead of four as was contemplated by Article VII of the former draft and by Article V the period after which the convention might be terminated on notice by either party would be five instead of fifteen years. It is believed that within the shorter periods the two governments would have available for their consideration the results of the investigations of the joint commission which should aid them in establishing a system of permanent protection of the halibut fishery, and that in general the proposed shorter terms are better adapted to the purposes of a convention dealing with the halibut fishery alone than the longer terms which were accommodated to the conditions concerning port privileges of fishing vessels and other subjects as well as to the halibut fishery.
I should be pleased to be informed of the views of the British and Canadian Governments with reference to the draft which I herewith enclose, and should this draft be acceptable to them to proceed to the signature of the convention at an early date in order that it may, if possible, be submitted to the Senate for its advice and consent to ratification during the present session with a view to establishing the close season in November of next year.
Accept [etc.]
- Foreign Relations, 1919, vol. i, p. 264.↩
- Not printed.↩