The sun., 1898-11-18
The Joint Commission at Washington.

The reassembling Of the Joint High Com
mission in this country after its prolonged
Quebec sessions doubtless marks the final
stage of its deliberations. Lord HERsCHELL,
its Chairman, whose other duties must soon
call him elsewhere, recently expressed the
opinion that its report would be ready at
the approaching meeting OF Congress, of
which body, by the way, majority of our
representatives on the commission are
members. Yet to prepare its report will be
no light task.
Something like a dozen subjects are to be
reported on, and all are OF much conse-
quence. To begin with, there is the Beh-
ring Sea sealing dispute, out of which the
commission originated. Then there are
two other fishery questions, those Of the
Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes and
other inland waters between Canada and
our country. There are also two boundary
controversies, the main one being in Alaska
and the other in the Hunters Island region
between Ontario and Minnesota. Then come
the great railway and other transit prob
lens, with the present bonding privileges
as leading feature, and with sea, river and
canal transportation between the two coun-
tries also to be considered. The alien labor
laws Of the two countries regularly dis
cussed when an immigration bill comes up
in Congress, and the mining rights of for
eigners, form another brace OF topics to be
disposed Of The revision of the Rush
Bagot agreement of 1917 concerning the
'naval force on the lakes is less important,
but is on the programme. and so Is the
revision of rules for following, capturing
and taking across the border persons
charged with offences. And towering above
all, it may seem, Is the question of trade
reciprocity.
1t will be seen, therefore, that the Joint
High Commission has good deal of work
cut out for 1t, and some doubts are ex-
pressed as to whether it will report before the
December session OF Congress Still, the
Quebec sessions began as far back as Au-
gust, and the very multiplicity OF subjects
may be help. II turned to account In bar
gaining. 1t has been suggested that the
commission would hardly have taken so
long vacation before reassembling at
Washington il it had not already reached a
tolerably clear idea of what could be settled
and what could not, and of the general
principles OF settlement, leaving sub-com-
mittees to work out details.
To Illustrate the character OF the subjects
under consideration, we may cite the fish
cries, apart from Behring Sea sealing. This
question is more than a century old and
includes the topics of the purchase of bait
and OF supplies by our fishermen in Cana
dian ports; the transshipment of fish
there; the marine league limit the license
system for supplies and other privileges now
established by Canada; the desire OF New
foundland to exchange a grant of such
privileges by her for free entrance
OF fish and fish products in our ports
as arranged by the Bond-Blaine agree
ment of 1901, which the Dominion object
ed to and Great Britain would not allow.
Perhaps, indirectly, even the French shore"
question may come In. The subject deals
with sea products which have aggregated
hundreds of millions of dollars in the past.
And In addition there is the question Of the
preservation OF fish in lake and river
waters under mutual regulations for closed