Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-15
CANADA'S NEW CANAL MAY
DELAY ST. LAWRENCE PLAN
Beauharnois S75,OOO,O0O Project to Meet
Dominion Needs for 10 to 20 Years
Impeding Cooperation With U. S.

where and under whose domain power
plants are to be erected how contribu-
tons to necessary costs are to be
divided between Federal and Dominion,
State and provincial governments.
1t is in considering all these factors
and leaving the inevitable political jock
eying in both countries out of the ar
gument entirely that unbiased observ-
ers say 10 years at least must pass be-
fore any practical progress can be made
with an international st. Lawrence deep
waterway.
Nature of the River Border.
New York States border line reaches
into the center of the st. Lawrence, OPP
posite Cornwall, Ontario, at the western
end of Lake ST. Francis. To the east
both banks of the river are in Canada.
Valleyfield, western terminus of the
Beauharnois Canal, is about 20 miles
from the international boundary.
Any development Of the st. Lawrence
for power or navigation west of the New
York State border must of necessity be
international in plan and scope, but to
i the SaSt, from Lake st. Francis to the
ssa, the river entirely belongs to Can
ada.
The Beauharnois Canal will be fin
lshed in three years. In five years, if
the Canadian government so decides,
oceangoing steamships will dock at
Valleyfield, on the eastern edge of On
tarlo, 20 miles from New York States
northern boundary. What then, OBJ
servers ask, will be the advantage to
Canada of further negotiations with the
United States for an enormously costly
international power and navigation de-
veIopment of the st. Lawrence above
the border when she already has, in the
Beauharnois Canal, almost every ad-
vantage international exploitation would
prlng her-and all in her own territory?
Politically the affair is more COM
PICK. The perpetual acrimony between
Cne%nterestS of the industrial East and
tne agrar1an West is a potent factor.
ontario pledged to public ownership
OF power, is even now engaged in a
controversy with Quebec, stoutly bound
10 the principle of private enterprise.
toronto dreams of seeing great ocean
llnerS docking on her Lake Ontario
water front Montreal guards jealousy
her proud position at Canada's first
port. Already in the maritime prov
lnceS and Quebec the old war cry, mo
truck or trade with the Yankee!" which
wrecked the Taft-Laurier reciprocity
proposals 20 years ago is being taken
out OF moth balls against political emer-
gencles of the near future.
Quebec Opposes Development.
Western Canada. including Ontario,
Is ready, even anxious, to open the
river from the sea to a point as far
west as possible and will accept any
reasonable international agreement lock-
ing to that end: but Quebec, the largest
individual contributor, through taxa
ton, of all the provinces to the ma
tional exchequer, sets her face sternly
against any such expenditures as are
involved In the international plan, de-
claring 1t unnecessary and one-sided,
with the United States gaining ire
mendous advantages at Canada's ex-
pense.
The maritime provinces, Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick and Prince Edward Is
land, see little benefit in the scheme,
with dangerous possibilities of loss OF
trade, especially through the ports of
Halifax and St. John.
While these political cauldrons are
bubbling from Cape Breton to British
Columbia the wealthy hackers of the
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