158.429/204
The Canadian Minister (Massey) to the Secretary of State
Sir: With reference to embargo on the importation into the United States of milk and cream originating within a two hundred mile radius of Montreal.
I have the honour to state that after a thorough and most careful investigation into the health conditions in the Eastern part of the Province of Ontario, and the two counties of Vandreuil and Soulanges in the Province of Quebec, the Canadian Department of Agriculture has found no trace whatsoever of typhoid in any municipality east of Belleville and North Bay and lying between the Ottawa and St. Lawrence Rivers, with the exception of three cases in the city of Ottawa. These three cases are apparently traceable to a slight infection up the Gatineau River in the Province of Quebec, some few miles north of the city of Ottawa, where a number of cases developed during the summer of 1926, presumably from workmen engaged on the large power development going on in that district.
I would point out that every county or rural district in which milk is produced in the eastern part of Ontario, and the two above mentioned counties in Quebec, are absolutely free from typhoid, there being no record of any cases having been found in these parts for many months, in fact, in years.
In these circumstances, I have the honour to bring this matter to your notice, and to express the hope that the competent authorities [Page 111] of the United States Government may now see their way to allow entry of milk and cream at the Port of Nyando, N. Y., and ports west thereof, provided always that the milk or cream comes from points within the triangle formed by the Rivers Ottawa and St. Lawrence, or west thereof.
It may be added that an investigation by the Department of Agriculture, of the existing situation in the Province of Quebec, seems to indicate that most cases outside the City of Montreal are found on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, from which no milk is being shipped to the United States. I would therefore like to recommend that as soon as the counties outside of, say, a fifty mile radius of Montreal in the Province of Quebec are able to show a clean Bill of Health insofar as typhoid is concerned, that consideration be given to the shortening up of the radius from Montreal, as covered by the embargo, thus to permit of milk from the outlying parts of the Province being exported to the United States. In view of the fact that since there does not appear to be any point in Quebec beyond the 100 mile radius where a case of typhoid has been found for some months past, it would appear as though this 200 mile radius might very safely be reduced to a 150 mile radius at a very early date. This would not, as a matter of fact, admit any milk from Quebec Province, since no milk has been shipped to the United States from any point at a greater distance than about 100 miles from Montreal in the Province of Quebec.
I have the honour to transmit herewith, for your information and convenience of reference, maps of Ontario and Quebec, showing clearly the incidence of the radii mentioned.
I have [etc.]