Mr. Lincoln to Mr.
Blaine.
[Extract.]
Legation of
the United States,
London, September 19, 1889.
(Received October 1.)
No. 84.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
Mr. Wharton’s instruction No. 68, of August 26, 1889, in relation to the
subjection of American vessels in Canadian ports to the provisions of the
Canadian “Seamens’ act, 1886,” and to the discrimination in the port of
Halifax against American vessels of a certain tonnage, in the matter of
pilot dues, and to acquaint you that I yesterday addressed to Lord Salisbury
a communication on the subject, of which a copy is inclosed, and also
personally pressed the subject upon the attention of Sir Thomas Saunderson,
in the absence from England of Lord Salisbury.
Sir Thomas stated to me that the matter was new to him, as he had assumed his
present duties since March, but that he would see that it had immediate
attention.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 84.]
Mr. Lincoln to Lord
Salisbury.
Legation of the United States,
London, September 18,
1889.
My Lord: On the 18th of March, 1889, Mr. White
had the honor of addressing to your lordship a copy of a communication
from Mr. Bayard, instructing him to bring to the attention of Her
Majesty’s Government the action of the Canadian authorities in extending
the enforcement of the Canadian seamen’s act of 1886 (originally of
1873) so as to require vessels of the United States in Canadian ports to
conform, in respect to the shipment of crews, to the laws of the
Dominion of Canada instead of the laws of the United States, and
requiring the shipment of seamen by our vessels in such ports to be made
before a Canadian shipping-master instead of the proper consular officer
of the United States. In that communication it was observed that, while
under a strict construction of the laws of the United States, shipments
of seamen on foreign vessels in ports of the United States might be
required to be made before United States shipping commissioners, yet it
was understood that such a construction had never been adopted, but such
shipments were invariably allowed to be made before the proper consular
officer of his Government. This course of the United States is in
accordance with an international comity which is reciprocated, as my
Government is advised by every foreign government excepting that of
Canada, and it was hoped that such reciprocal treatment for American
vessels in Canadian ports would be secured by the presentation of the
case to Her Majesty’s Government. As no answer has been made to the
complaint upon the subject, addressed to your lordship in March last,
and as the minister of customs of the Dominion of Canada has since, in
the month of June
[Page 462]
last,
instructed the collectors of customs to enforce the thirty-second
section of the seamen’s act above mentioned, by refusing clearance to
the vessels of the United States until the production of a
shipping-master’s certificate to the effect that all requirements of the
act have been complied with, I am instructed by my Government to recall
the subject to your lordship’s attention, with a view to its proper
adjustment between Her Majesty’s Government and the Government of the
United States.
I beg also to acquaint your lordship that I am further instructed to call
the attention of Her Majesty’s Government to a discrimination in respect
to pilot dues at the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, by which American
vessels of tonnage ranging from eighty to one hundred and twenty are
subjected to pilotage dues from which Canadian vessels of like tonnage
are exempt, and to express the hope that the removal of this
discrimination may be secured.
I have, etc.,
