Office of the Historian

711.42157 Detroit/41

The Chargé in Canada (Boal) to the Acting Secretary of State

No. 57
Ottawa, June 12, 1933.
[Received June 14.]

Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch No. 1297 of March 23, 1933, and other correspondence with regard to operations to be conducted in Canadian waters in connection with the dredging of certain shoal areas in the St. Clair River, and to report the receipt of a note No. 68 of June 10, 1933, from the Department of External Affairs which modifies to some extent the conditions imposed by the Canadian Government in its note No. 27 of March 21, 1933, which was transmitted with the despatch under reference.

Respectfully yours,

Pierre de L. Boal
[Page 96]
[Enclosure]

The Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs (Bennett) to the American Chargé (Boal)

No. 68
Ottawa, June 10, 1933.

Sir: I have the honour to refer to my note No. 27, dated the 21st March, 1933, concerning the operations which the War Department was proposing to conduct in Canadian waters, in connection with the dredging of certain shoal areas in the St. Clair River.

The first two conditions set forth in the note required that your Government, having decided upon the extent of the proposed improvement, should, before proceeding with the dredging and disposal of spoil material, submit the results of their further studies to the engineers of the Department of Public Works, and secure the concurrence of the Canadian Government engineers therein, in order that the maximum beneficial effect from the disposal of the waste material should be obtained. They also provided that the Canadian Government should be informed in advance of the method to be followed in carrying out the work, and should be provided with a programme of operations.

I understand that pursuant to these conditions the United States authorities have made certain submissions to the Canadian Government engineers in respect to the improvement of that section of the St. Clair River channel from the head of the St. Clair Flats Canal upstream as far as Algonac, Michigan, about opposite the head of Walpole Island in Ontario. These submissions have been examined by the Canadian Government engineers and I have been authorized by the Department of Public Works to request you to notify the United States engineer officer that the work may be proceeded with according to the scheme submitted, in so far as the section of the river improvement under this portion of the proposal is concerned.

It is understood that the submission referred to does not contemplate the disposal of waste material on Walpole and Squirrel Islands and the marshes south thereof and that, accordingly, there is no occasion for the operation of conditions (9) to (12) inclusive, as set forth in the note referred to above.

Accept [etc.]

O. D. Skelton

For the Secretary of State for External Affairs