Attached for your information is a copy of the Great Lakes Fisheries Convention signed at Washington on September 10, 1954. ¹⁵⁸ The Canadian signatories were Messrs. Arnold Heeney and Stewart Bates, while Walter Bedell Smith and Dr. William C. Herrington signed on behalf of the United States.

2. You will recall that a Convention on this subject was concluded in 1946 and met considerable opposition on the part of United States Senators and Congressmen (principally those from Ohio) because it was designed to give international regulatory powers to a Fishery Commission. Because of this opposition, the United States was unable to ratify that Convention. ¹⁵⁹ If the Convention which has now been signed is ratified by both countries it will climax more than fifty years of attempts by both countries to adopt a common approach regarding the conservation and development of the Great Lakes fisheries. ¹⁶⁰ The six-man Commission to be established under this Convention will have no regulatory powers: its main job will be to foster research and to seek to abate the predatory sea lamprey which has been causing great damage to the fisheries of these Lakes. In view of the Ohio opposition it seemed unlikely that Lake Erie could be included in a research programme. As a result of the break-off by Canada of negotiations in February, 1953, of the excellent work which the United States negotiators have done since among Ohio fishermen and of the eloquent pleas made in Washington on September 8 by Dr. Stewart Bates, the document signed in Washington approaches what might be termed, for the present, the closest approach to the "ideal" Convention on Great Lakes fisheries embracing research and lamprey control over the five Great Lakes. If the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission does its work properly it should, in a few years time, have a fairly clear idea of the measures required to improve the yield of these fisheries, some of which have been in decline in recent years. The Commission, being empowered to make recommendations to the governments, may then call upon both governments to approve recommendations or to take measures in concert in order to conserve and improve these fisheries.

3. I understand that the Minister of Fisheries will, in due course, introduce legislation to implement the Convention and that he will, at that time, also seek parliamentary approval in order that the instruments of ratification can be exchanged early in the year.

J[ULES] L[ÉGER]