No. 162.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. West.
Washington, February 16, 1884.
Sir: Referring to previous correspondence in regard to the application of the Canadian authorities to land a cable “for the purpose of connecting the Canadian Government telegraph system near Victoria, [Page 239] Vancouver Island, and Point Angelos, Washington Territory, there to connect with the Puget Sound Telegraph Company’s line to Seattle and with the United States Government line to Cape Flattery,” I have now the honor, in further reply to your note of the 2d of January last on that subject, to note the observation of the committee of the Dominion privy council in the copy of the minute of that body which you inclose with your note, in which the committee say:
That any company or person can, upon proper application, subject, of course, to such rules and regulations as may be necessary to prevent competition for telegraph business within the province of British Columbia, obtain permission from the Canadian Government to land cables on its shores and there connect with their established lines.
Am I correct in assuming from the passage I have quoted that the Dominion Government owns and controls the “Canadian telegraph system,” including the line which is the subject of the present application’? If that line is owned and controlled by private individuals or by a private corporation, there might be danger that, after the Puget Sound Company had connected with the Canadian line in British Columbia, such obstacles might be thrown in its way, in the legitimate prosecution of its business, as to render the connection useless, or at least detrimental or disadvantageous, to the Puget Sound Company.
The Dominion Government say, in the minutes of the privy council, that “all other conditions [except that regarding the Puget Sound Company] submit ted by the United States Government are unobjectionable.” If this Government can receive through you from the Dominion Government assurances that the Puget Sound Company, upon connecting with the Canadian line on the shores of British Columbia, will be afforded equal advantages, privileges, and facilities in the transaction of its own proper business and the prompt and regular transmission of its messages with those accorded to or possessed by the managers of the Canadian line in British Columbia, or with those which may be granted to any other connecting cable, the President directs me to say that the privilege now asked by the Canadian authorities to land their cable on the shores of the United States in Washington Territory will be at once accorded to the Dominion Government, in accordance with my note of the 28th of September last.
I have, &c.,