85 



APPENDIX V 



Order in Council, October 12, 1918, re St. Lawrence River 



Power Company 



P. C. 2509 — Certified copy of a Report of the Committee of the 

 Privy Council, approved bv His Excellencv the Governor General on 

 the 12th October, 1918. 



The Committee of the Pri\y Council have had before them a 

 Report, dated 19th September, 1918, from the Acting Secretary of 

 State for External Affairs, submitting as follows: — 



As the result of an application recently made to the International 

 Joint Commission by the St. Lawrence River Power Company, a 

 corporation of the State of New York, for the approval of a project 

 to construct certain works in the South Sault channel of the St. 

 Lawrence river, an International navigable boundary water, a 

 situation arose which gravely concerned Canadian interests; for in 

 the view of this Government, already expressed at length in the order 

 in council of the 2nd September, 1918, (P. C. 2144),* not only was it 

 clear that, since the proposed works would wholly prevent navigation 

 through the South Sault channel, the International Joint Commission 

 was, by reason of existing treaties between His Majesty the King and 

 the United States, without power to sanction the project, but it was 

 further apparent that the project itself was inconsistent with and 

 would seriously impede the best development of the St. Lawrence 

 river for navigation and power purposes in the interest of both 

 countries. It was also the view of this Government that the con- 

 struction of such works was in no wise necessary for the attainment 

 of the end desired by the St. Lawrence River Power Company, as 

 expressed in their application, but that other effective and wholly 

 unobjectionable means were available for that purpose. Accordingly, 

 it became the duty of the Government to appear formally before the 

 International Joint Commission and to enter its strong objection to 

 any consideration of the application by that tribunal. At the same 

 time it appeared that the Government of the United States has come 

 forward in support of the application and was urging its immediate 

 approval as an urgent war measure. 



In those circumstances this Government, wuth every desire to 

 promote the most effective co-operation in the prosecution of the 

 war, proposed, as will appear from the said order in council of the 

 2nd September, 1918, that the matter should be withdrawn from the 

 International Joint Commission and discussed directly between the 

 two Governments with a view to securing the immediate accomplish- 

 ment of the desire and purpose of the United States Government and, 

 at the same time, preserving the position of this countr\' in respect of 

 its treaty rights and its interest in the sound development of the 

 St. Lawrence river for navigation and power purposes. The proposal 

 was indeed calculated to secure this purpjose of the Ihiited States 

 Government more expeditiously than was possible through the 

 medium of the Commission, even if the Commission had had power to 

 entertain the case. 



*See Apjjendix II, p. 65. 



