711.4215 Air Pollution/582
The Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs (Bennett) to the American Minister in Canada (Robbins)58
Sir: I have the honour to refer to recent discussions regarding claims against the Trail Smelter and to state that the Canadian Government has been giving careful consideration to the possibility of a solution on the lines discussed between officers of our government and representatives of the Department of State and yourself at Washington.
In the hope of reaching a speedy settlement of this issue, the Canadian Government is prepared to accept the draft as revised on that occasion with the following verbal changes in Article III, which it is believed will clarify the questions without changing the intent;
Article III—Question 2
The first clause to read “In the event of the answer to the first part of the preceding question being in the affirmative, etc”.
[Page 967]Question 3
All words after “maintained” to be struck out and the words “by the Trail Smelter” to be substituted.
I enclose two copies of the draft which was under discussion in Washington, amended to include the two changes indicated above.
I should be glad to learn whether the Government of the United States are prepared to enter into an agreement on this basis.59
Accept [etc.]
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in Canada in his despatch No. 989, January 1, 1935; received January 3, 1935.↩
- In telegram No. 20, March 20, 1935, 6 p.m. the Minister in Canada was authorized “to sign convention conforming to Canadian draft that accompanied your despatch.” The Canadian draft (not printed) was, with purely verbal changes in the preamble, identical with the treaty signed at Ottawa, April 15, 1935: Treaty Series No. 893, or 49 Stat. 3245.↩