811.114 Canada/5026
The Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury (Morgenthau)
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I have received the letter dated October 28, 1935, from Assistant Secretary Gibbons, with reference to the additional information which Acting Secretary Coolidge suggested in his letter of July 19, 1935,71 be obtained by the Canadian Government from masters of vessels suspected of being engaged in the illicit liquor traffic.
I note that the Assistant Commissioner of Customs of Canada stated in his communication addressed to the American Consul General at Ottawa that he would
“like to be assured that the United States authorities would be willing to comply with any corresponding request for information that might be made on behalf of the Canadian services”,
and that Mr. Gibbons replies, in the letter under acknowledgment, that the Treasury Department
“will be pleased to comply with requests of Canadian authorities for such information as may be available regarding similar matters”.
Inasmuch as the request for the additional information desired from masters of suspected liquor smuggling vessels originated with this Government, I feel that we should express our willingness to comply with a “corresponding request” from the Canadian Government unless there is no legal authority to do so. In the latter case would it not be possible to state, for the benefit of the Canadian authorities, more specifically the extent to which this Government could go in meeting a similar request? This would apply particularly to items 4 and 5 of Mr. Coolidge’s letter, requesting the following information:
- (4)
- Flag, home port, official number, name, rig, registered owner and master, as shown on license, of the contracting vessel.
- (5)
- Party or parties who ordered him so to unlade the cargo.
Since suspected liquor smuggling vessels from time to time arrive at American ports, it is possible that similar information may be requested by the Canadian authorities regarding transshipments on the high seas for illegal introduction into Canada. Within the past few weeks the liquor vessels Accuracy, Selma K, Shenaliam, and Pronto have been in American ports, and the liquor vessel Apohaqui, in command of Captain William Crouse, formerly master of the liquor vessel Tatamagouche, cleared from St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, for Boston, Massachusetts, on October 12, 1935. It is suggested that you consider whether information regarding the operations of these vessels while at sea in connection with liquor and alcohol smuggling activities directed against the United States, as well as against Canada, might be required of the masters before clearance is granted, in view of the provisions of the recent Anti-Smuggling Act and the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the case of United States v. Ford, 273 U. S. 593, arising out of the seizure of the British liquor vessel Quadra. In that decision there is quoted with approval an excerpt from a decision in the case of Strassheim v. Daily, 221 U. S. 280, reading in part as follows:
“Acts done outside a jurisdiction, but intended to produce and producing detrimental effects within it, justify a state in punishing the cause of the harm as if he had been present at the effect, if the State should succeed in getting him within its power.”
Sincerely yours,
- Not printed.↩