The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Const Times. MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1928.

Hokitika Guardian, 5 March 1928, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Const Times. MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1928.

FAMOUS DRAINAGE CASE. The famous Chicago lake drainage I case continues to occupy considerable attention in the American public press. Ex-Justice Charles E. Hughes, acting as special master for the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the Secretary of War had authority to grant permission to the City of Chicago for the present diversion of water from Lake Michigan. He holds, however, that Congress has first authority or jurisdiction in the matter which means that the legislative branch can say yes or no as to future usage of the lake water. What Congress will do cannot be predicted, but it is certain that with the vigorous protest of numerous lake cities against tiie permanent lowering of Great Lakes lathe impairment and destruction of their ports and harbors, Congress is not going to l>e allowed to leave the question in abeyance. The Dominion of Canada is equally interested. She has not the number of lake ports at stake, but the flow of the St. Lawrence river is influenced from the same cause and the port of Montreal particularly. There is no denying the fact that Canada resents rather bitterly the present situation. She feels that neither justice, international comity, or equity condones a diversion of a flow of water from the Great Lakes possessed in part by both countries. That the diversion is becoming serious is admitted. How to meet the pro, hlem Is flying serious cepcerp fq faip

minded people on both sides of the border line. It has been suggested that with matters as they stand, the United States may as well abandon any plan that looks to an international agreement for the deepening of the St. Lawrence and the development of an immense, electric power project, •since Canada of a surety will not consider an agreement of this sort as long as Chicago is permitted to drain away from Lake Michigan a. volume of water that is impairing' navigation. It is doubtful if the present generation will live to sec the completion of the ambitious dream to convert the St. Lawrence into an uninterrupted channel for the passage of ocean traffic to the head of the Great Lakes—that is, under an international plan. The cost ii is admitted, would Ik* enorinbiis, running into figures exceeding half a billion dollars. Canada is in no mood to expend this amount, or half of it. anil its for the electric power to he developed. she has no domestic market for ii, and is averse to becoming entangled in agreements that might in the end involve a iiennnuont export. The St. Lawrence is only in small part an international or boundary river. For its greater length it runs through Canadian territory, This being true. Canadians do not regard with much favour a scheme of joint control. Perhaps at some future day the Dominion may undertake the work as a national project, with a limited participation by the United Stales so far as real boundary water is concerned. The present international scheme appear.-, to many practical people in both countries as a. project without present chance of realisation.