842.612 Peaches/14
The Consul General at Ottawa (Linnell) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 19.]
Sir: Reference is made to the Department’s instruction of June 11, 1927, with which was transmitted a copy of a letter from the Acting Secretary of Agriculture, concerning the embargo against the importation into the Dominion of Canada of fresh peaches and peach nursery stock from certain States of the United States.
As was reported in Mr. Hickerson’s despatches No. 6695 of June 23, 1927, No. 6675 of June 15, 1927, and No. 6673 of June 14, 1927,71 it proved to be impossible to obtain a definite decision from the Canadian Department of Agriculture until the return of Mr. Motherwell, the Minister of Agriculture.
Mr. Motherwell returned to Ottawa on July 14th, and an interview was arranged with him for July 16th, which was the earliest date possible, when I attended at his office with Mr. Hickerson. Dr. J. H. Grisdale, the Deputy Minister of the Canadian Department of Agriculture, was also present at the interview.
The representations suggested by the Department in its instruction of June 11th, and Mr. Marvin’s letter to the Department of June 3rd, were again presented fully to Mr. Motherwell, but he replied that he was not convinced that the fact that Canada now has some of the oriental peach moth, was any reason why Canada should take any chances of admitting more of these moths to the peach-growing areas. The only peach growing areas of Canada are in the Provinces of Ontario and British Columbia, and the final result of the conference was that Mr. Motherwell agreed to consider whether it would be possible to raise the embargo against American peaches for all the provinces of Canada, other than the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia.
Mr. Motherwell also pointed out that the statement made by the United States Department of Agriculture, (bottom of page 1 in its [Page 105] letter of June 3rd, referred to above), that “Canada has placed no restrictions on the movement of fruit to other parts of the Dominion from infested areas in Ontario where the peach crop is an important feature” is incorrect, since Canada has an embargo against the shipment of peaches from Ontario to British Columbia.
It is appreciated that the province of Ontario is the most densely populated province and furnishes one of the principal possible markets for American peaches, but Mr. Motherwell said that under present conditions, he did not feel that the embargo could be removed for Ontario, in any event. He promised to give a definite answer concerning the removal of the embargo for the provinces, other than Ontario and British Columbia, as soon as possible, probably by July 20th or 21st.
In the course of the conversation, he intimated that he would have liked to have dealt personally with Mr. Jardine, the Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture in this matter, and had hoped to have seen him at the Poultry Congress, which begins in Ottawa on July 27th.
Mr. Motherwell also stated that his Department had been unable to ascertain definitely with reference to Georgia, Michigan and Illinois, in particular, what measures have been taken to control the peach moth and to what extent these measures have been effective.
I have [etc.]
- None printed. John D. Hickerson was the consul in charge at Ottawa.↩