033.4111MacDonald, Ramsay/105½
President Hoover to
the Secretary of State
The
White House, October 10,
1929.
My Dear Mr. Secretary: Please find enclosed
herewith copy of the prohibition comment sent to the Prime Minister.
Yours faithfully,
[Page 32]
[Enclosure]
Memorandum on the Enforcement of Prohibition of
the Liquor Traffic
The United States is making the most notable effort in all history to
suppress alcoholic beverages. This effort is one that is of profound
importance to the whole of humanity and the United States in
pioneering it in certain directions and [sic]
is therefore doing service to all nations. It would appear that it
should receive the sympathetic support of other nations for whether
it succeeds or not, it will at least have exhausted some portion of
the wide variety of methods for the remedy of a great human
evil.
We have had numerous conferences with Canadian authorities with
respect to measures that could be taken to assist in suppression of
the flow of alcoholic beverages over the border. The Canadian
authorities have cooperated to the extent of giving information to
the American officials as to proposed shipments and in other ways
which have been most helpful. However, so long as the Canadian
Government allows liquor to be cleared for American ports or allows
their clearance for other ports when really destined for the U. S.
there will be a constant stream of Canadian liquor into the U. S. It
is not possible on 3,000 miles of frontier to erect sufficient
border patrol to prevent it because the initiative is always in the
hands of the smuggler.
This movement of liquor is the source of constant friction between
the two nations. Only desperate men of criminal type engage upon it.
They are criminals under the laws of the United States. They go
armed and often arm their ships. Such equipment is an indication of
their intent to kill and they have often killed the United States
officers. It is impossible on our side to employ the type of men on
border patrols who have knowledge of international law and delicacy
in dealing with killers, and when perchance they execute their duty
an inch over the line they are the cause of an international
incident. The sensational press envisages war with the British
Empire whenever an American patrol boat fires on a Canadian
bootlegger or vice versa, and if perchance one of this criminal
class should be killed or captured, he becomes an international
celebrity. The diplomatic officers of Great Britain are placed in
the difficult position of defending the rights of criminals. All
this leads to constant and disagreeable irritation. The Canadian
officials in contact with our officials in the past have insisted
very frankly that the export of alcoholic beverages is an important
item in Canadian trade. We realize there is no obligation upon
Canada to trouble herself [Page 33]
over our problems. We bear her no ill will in the matter for she is
entirely within her rights in leaving it alone. The benefits to
Canada by full cooperation with the United States to help in a
social question would lie in better feeling in the United States
which would I am sure interpret itself in time into cooperation in
other directions which would be of assistance to her.
There is no real solution to the problem unless the Canadian
Government would undertake to prohibit shipment of all liquor to the
United States. At the present time the great bulk of shipments (as
per my official information 90%) are cleared directly for American
ports. If the only shipments were upon false papers the traffic
would greatly diminish as the smuggler would thus be in conflict and
in danger from the laws of both countries.
Mr. Mackenzie King has recently taken an interest in the matter and
expressed a desire to clear it up. The British Government also
controls a certain amount of liquor flow into the United States
through the West Indies, and some direct from British ports. The
question therefore involves Great Britain directly also.
