Evening star., 1939-06-15
No Treaty Violation
Seen by Navy in Lakes
Warship Building
Cunudiun Government
Declared Consulted
On Sub Chaser
BY w. GERALD DOWNEY.

Answering congressional COM
plant, the Navy Department an
nounced today that construction of
American mosquito fleet" vessels on
the Great Lakes leaves inviolate the
122-year-old treaty with Canada
barring warships from the border
waterways.
Before the 1925 900 contract for
building a submarine chaser at Bay
City, Mich, on Lake Huron-the
center of the controversy-was let,
the department disclosed, the Cana
dian government was consulted.
Representative OIeary, Democrat,
of New York, had complained that
the ancient treaty, known as the
Rush-Bagot agreement, was in dan
ger.
The ship is intended for salt water
service and will be armed at Nor
folk, Va. the Navy Department de-
clared. The agreement is a corner
stone in the history of unarmed
amity between the two North
American countries, which Presi-
dent Roosevelt extolled as a model
for the world when he toasted King
George at the White House.
Navy Department Positive.
After laying the question before
the State Department, the Navy
Department stated:
The Navy Department has been
informed by competent authority,
with whom the Canadian authorities
are in agreement. that it would be
entirely consistent with underlying
objectives of existing treaty agree
ments for either country to permit
naval vessels unquestionably in
tended for tidewater service only, to
be constructed in shipyards situated
on the Great Lakes
The contract for the chaser was
awarded Tuesday to the Defoe Boat
g. Motor Works, and last week a
$l02.,325 contract for two 59-foot
motor torpedo boats was given to the
Fisher Boat Works, Detroit. also on
the Great Lakes. Representative
OLeary wrote to the President and
the Secretary of State an expression
of his fears the agreement dating
from 18l7-three years after the
War of 1872. which saw number Of
Great Lakes naval battles-Would
be broken through the contract.
The agreement provides that all
armed vessels on these lakes shall
be forthwith dismantled and no
other vessels of war shall there be
built or armed" The submarine
chaser is to be equipped at Bay
City with torpedo tubes and gun
mounts. Apparently this does not
constitute armaments In the sense
of the treaty.
History of Agreement.
The Rush-Bagot agreement was
the elimination of many years of
effort on the part of our early
statesmen. John Adams, John Jay
and Alexander Hamilton all strove
to reach such an agreement with
Great Britain. They worked for
years, but 1t was not until 1917 that
the Acting Secretary of State, Rich
ard Rush, and the British Minister,
Charles Bagot, by an exchange of
notes made an executive agreement
that neither the United States nor
Great Britain should maintain any
naval vessels except revenue cut
tiers on Lakes Superior, Michigan,
Huron, Erie, Ontario and on Lake
Champlain.
At the time the agreement was
made the British were fearful that
1t would not be acceptable to the
succeeding administration. To al
leviate any such fears, President
Monroe sent the agreement to the
Senate, which promptly ratified it.,
giving 1t the force of treaty and
making it the supreme law OF the
land.
The prohibition of naval arma-
ments on the Great Lakes effected
by this agreement set an example
to both countries. The result was
that after 1886 the few land fortifica-
tions on the eastern part of the
boundary were allowed to fall into
decay.
At the present time we have the
very pleasing prospect of an un-
fortified frontier extending over
5000 miles.