811.114 Ottawa Conference/72
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Howard)
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication No. 478 of May 28, 1924,59 with which you were good enough to submit to me a draft of the proposed treaty between the United States and the Dominion of Canada for the purpose of suppressing the illicit liquor traffic across the international boundary between the two countries and for other purposes, and which you inform me was drawn up as a result of recommendations agreed upon by representatives of the United States and Canada in the conference held at Ottawa November last.60
You add that Lord Byng of Vimy feels confident that the terms of the treaty will be agreeable to this Government and requests you to emphasize the mutual advantages which would accrue to both the governments concerned if the treaty should be signed and ratified during the present session of the Congress. You request, moreover, to be furnished with an expression of my views as soon as possible.
The text of the Canadian draft has been examined with care by the appropriate authorities of this Government. Save with respect to a few minor details which it is believed might be capable of adjustment in conference, this Government is prepared to accept the Canadian draft.
Inasmuch as the interval is very brief before the adjournment of Congress, I am hopeful that the Honorable Ernest Lapointe, K. C. who, I am advised by your Embassy has been empowered to conclude the treaty proposed with this Government and to sign the same in behalf of His Majesty the King in respect to the Dominion of Canada, may be good enough to come to Washington at the earliest possible moment. Through his presence here the treaty might be signed and submitted to the Senate before its adjournment.
Accept [etc.]
- Not printed.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. i, pp. 228 ff.↩