711.4216 M 58/136
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Canada (Phillips)
Sir: There is enclosed herewith a copy of a letter, dated December 23, 1927, from the War Department,28 requesting that the Department [Page 47] take up with the Canadian Government the matter of the construction by the War Department of the compensating works in the Niagara and St. Clair Rivers which were recommended in the report of the Joint Board of Engineers on the St. Lawrence waterway on November 16, 1926.
You will note that the works proposed in the Niagara River consist of a longitudinal dyke approximately one-half mile in length, connected to the Canadian shore by a rock-filled weir, and supplemented by submerged rock sills in the deeper portion of the river adjacent to the dyke. The estimated cost of these works, which lie in Canadian waters, is $700,000.
The works proposed in the St. Clair River are a series of thirty-one submerged rock sills, with crests thirty feet below the low water stage of the river, designed to restore levels of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron to the extent of one foot. The estimated cost of these works is $2,700,000. The sills lie in part in Canadian and in part in American waters.
Plans for these works will be presented to the International Joint Commission for the approval of that body, in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of 1909, if the construction of these works be authorized by Congress and if the Canadian Government gives its consent to their construction by the War Department.
The War Department states, however, that it will be of material assistance to it in presenting the plans to Congress to be assured of the consent of the Government of Canada to the construction of the proposed works by the United States.
You are instructed to bring this matter to the attention of the Canadian Government, if you perceive no objection to so doing, and to report the results of your representations on the subject.
I am [etc.]
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