Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-20
BY n. C. HAWKIN.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
LONDON, October 10 (N.AN.A.) -
President Hoover has for some years
been urging great waterway, large
enough to enable ocean liners to reach
Chicago from Europe by the st. Law
renee route. This Is far more daring
project than the Panama Canal, be-
cause 1t includes the extraction of q
vast store Of electric power for local
industrial purposes.
Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo
and Toronto would become great ports,
able to admit to their harbors SO per
cent of all ocean-going vessels which
now call at North American seaports.
The economic relations and transport
trade between Great Britain and the
United States will be profoundly modi-
fed If this enterprise is sanctioned, and
no one can foresee or dares to say what
the effects will be.
The cost of construction will be, to
some extent, met by the sale of
100000 horsepower, which will be
tumbling over the necessary dams, and,
while the pessimists wonder who will
buy the power, the optimiStS reply that
America already uses 48,000,000 horse
power of electric power, so that the
extra 5,000,0 900 horsepower should not
be difiicult to absorb.
British Assistance.
want to show that President Hoover
cannot complete this great work with
out the help of England and that 1t will
be wise policy for England to help.
Some confusion arose In 1926, in
Washington and elsewhere. regarding
that exceedingly nebulous constitutional
doctrine called dominion status" This
status was accorded to the various COM
ponent parts of the British common
wealth of nations during and after the
war, and the definition Of the imperial
conference of 1917 gave Canada COM
plete control over domestic matters
while reserving for imperial considera-
ton matters of common imperial con-
Germ.
In 1927 Mr.. Hoover spoke at New
Haven as Secretary Of Commerce, and
in that speech treated the St. Lawrence
waterway as a matter domestic to the
North American Continent, but the
treaties of 1884 and 1871, which regu-
lated navigation rights on the st. Law
renee. were between Great Britain and
the United States, and the 1871 treaty
terminated the Alabama controversy, sc
this is obviously not merely domestic
but question Of common imperial
concern"
The commercial navigation rights &C.
crued to Canada by virtue of its con-
nection with Great Britain. and there
are many commercial rights belonging
to British subjects generally which
Canada could not alter-even If she de-
sired to do so, which Is unlikely.
This point Is not only important FOL
the British Isles: 1t concerns Newfound-
land and the West Indies as well.
Canada's Interest.
rVT1.n
ada to negotiate direct with the United
ada is the local partner of the British
commonwealth of nations in the North
American Continent. She certainly
negotiates for herself first, for she has
the major interest in the business, but
she also is a member of the partner
ship which will consider and ratify her
work.
This position ought not to hinder, but
TO help the project. for England is pre-
eminently a shipping country, and an
enterprise which will improve the pros
poets of sea commerce cannot fail to
attract attention at Westminster.
England Is told that, by means OF
this project, the farmers of the United
States will be able to effect a saving
of 8 cents a bushel in transporting their
grain to England for European con-
sumption. AS England, regarding grain.
is free trade country, we assume that
the British workman will be able to buy
his bread somewhat cheaper as a re-
suit of this shipway. That Is one up
for the scheme from the British point
Of view.
England l. also told that the New
England States and afortiori. Canada
will be able to manufacture goods in
competition with Europe, because they
will have a great reservoir Of cheap
electrical power for industrial uses.