711.4216C78/1
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Canada (Phillips)
Sir: The Department has received your despatch No. 977 of May 3, 1929,52 in regard to a proposed power development in Passamaquoddy Bay by Dexter P. Cooper, Incorporated of Eastport, Maine. Reference in this regard is also made to a conference which took place in the Department on May 8, 1929, at which you were present, when Mr. Cooper, Governor Gardner and Senator Hale of Maine explained this project in detail.
It appears that, since a part of the works of this proposed project are in Canada, Mr. Cooper and his associates formed a Canadian company, the Canadian Dexter P. Cooper Company, which received a charter from the Dominion Government on June 15, 1926. Under the terms of this charter, the construction of the works must be commenced within three years from that date and be completed within another three years. Article 16 of the Company’s charter reads as follows:
“The powers conferred upon the Company by this Act shall not be exercisable until the Company has first submitted the plans showing such works, with a description of the proposed undertaking, to the Ministers respectively of Public Works, of Marine and Fisheries and of the Interior, at Ottawa, and has received the approval of each such Minister thereto, and until the Company has filed a duplicate of each in the office of the registrar of deeds in the county in which the proposed works are to be constructed, nor until the Company’s undertaking, including the apportionment of power generated by the Company between the Dominion of Canada and the United States of America, shall have been approved and reported upon by the International Joint Commission and has received the assent of the Governor in Council, subject to such terms and conditions as the Governor in Council deems necessary or desirable in the public interest.”
Mr. Cooper’s Company has taken steps to obtain the authorization of the competent authorities of the United States and the State of Maine to proceed with this work. Mr. Cooper states that on October 19, 1928, application was made to the Federal Power Commission for a license to build these works. It is understood that before acting on this application, the Federal Power Commission referred the matter [Page 80] to the War Department in order that it might receive an opinion from the Engineering Corps of that Department.
The Department has been informally advised by Colonel Bobbins of the War Department that the studies of the Army engineers on the engineering aspects of this project have been completed and that a report is now being prepared for the Federal Power Commission. He stated that in this report the War Department will recommend favorably on the project, provided certain conditions are fulfilled including locks to take care of navigation and the posting of a bond to guarantee the completion of the works or to provide funds for their removal in the event the project should be abandoned before completion.
As stated in Mr. Cooper’s letter to you of April 27, 1929, his Company has been unable to commence actual construction work on this project because it has not yet obtained the final approval of the Canadian Departments specified in Article 16 of its Canadian charter quoted above. While actual construction has not been started, Mr. Cooper states that a large amount of preliminary engineering work consisting of surveying the site of the proposed project, drilling operations to discover the nature of the terrain, laboratory tests of models and material and the preparation of plans have been carried out. He states that his Company has expended more than $300,000 in this preliminary work. Realizing sometime ago it would probably be impossible to obtain the final approval of the necessary Canadian Departments by June 15 next, the date on which under the Canadian charter construction must be started, Mr. Cooper asked that the Canadian Government pass legislation to extend the period during which construction might be started for two years from the above-mentioned date. It is understood that a bill in this sense was introduced in the House of Commons this session but was defeated by a vote of 22 to 10 in the Private Bills Committee of the House of Commons.
Mr. Cooper has informed the Department that it is his understanding that
the principal objection to the Bill to extend the time during which
construction might be started on this project came from fishery
interests and the Department of Marine and Fisheries because of a fear
that the project would prove detrimental to fisheries in the Bay of
Fundy. In this regard the Department has been informed by Mr. Henry
O’Malley, United States Commissioner of Fisheries, that a Sub-Committee
of the North American Committee on Fisheries Investigation appointed to
consider the probable effect of this project on the local fisheries,
made the following report:
This Sub-committee consisted of Messrs. Henry O’Malley and Henry B. Bigelow on the part of the United States and Messrs. W. A. Found and A. G. Huntsman on behalf of Canada.
Mr. Cooper stated in the Department on May 8 that he would like very much to have the Canadian Parliament, before adjournment this year reconsider the Canadian Dexter P. Cooper Company Bill No. 73 for the extension of the time to their charter. He added that inasmuch as the fisheries question was ostensibly the cause of the Committee’s refusing to grant this extension of time it would seem to be advisable that a Special Commission be appointed by the Canadian Government to go into this matter and to submit a report before December 1, 1929; Mr. Cooper stated that if such a Commission were appointed his Company would like to be represented on it. He added that if the Canadian Government did not look with favor upon the appointment of such a special Commission, the question might well be referred to the International Joint Commission.
The Department desires that you take up Mr. Cooper’s case with the appropriate Canadian authorities and that you explain to them the status of the Company’s project in the United States, as outlined in the preceding paragraphs. You should also inform the Canadian Government of the keen interest in this project of the Government of the State of Maine, as set forth at the conference in the Department recently by Governor Gardner and Senator Hale. It appears to the Department that this extension of time could be granted by the Canadian Parliament without committing itself in any way to the project, since the approval of three Canadian Departments must be obtained before construction can be started and an Order in Council must be passed authorizing the commencement of the work. In view of these safeguards, the Department finds it difficult to understand why the Canadian Government should be reluctant to grant this Company additional time in which to prove its case. In view of the heavy expenditure which has already been made by Mr. Cooper’s Company, it would be an injustice for it to be deprived of this further opportunity to convince the Canadian Department of the feasibility of this project.
You will submit a report of your representations to the Canadian Government on this subject at your early convenience.
I am [etc.]
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