Canada’s Interest in the Trade and the Sovereignty of Hawaii

Canada's Interest in the Trade and the Sovereignty ofHawaii* MERZE TATE CANADIAN CONCERNOVER THE POSSmLEANNEXATION Of the Hawaiian Islands by theUnitedStates stemmed fromseveral factors, including the strategic location of the archipelago lyingin the tractof communication between Australasia and British Columbia and actual and potential commercial tieswiththetropical islands. Thissolicitude was boundup with PrimeMinisterSir JohnA. Macdonald's national policyof expanding Canada's overseas markets andencouraging her manufacturing industries, with the world-encircling activities of the Canadian Pacific enterprise, also a partofhisdesign forCanada, and withtheprospect (ffa British Pacific cable. Undoubtedly, responsible members of theCanadian government andambitious investors were keenlyinterested in the tiny Polynesian kingdora's œuture, œor the enormous cost of theCanadian Pacific Railway impelled itspresident and managers to makeconsummate efforts to secure freightand passengers outside the wilderness andthe sparsely populated area traversed bytheroad. Moreover, inthelatenineteenth century powerful influences, including Canada's firstprimeminister, wereengaged in a planfora British cable fromVancouver toJapan andChinavia Honolulu, connecting withAustralia, andfor subsidizing commercial and mail lines of steamers on the same route.• *The research in thePublicRecord OSee,London, in connection withthisarticlewas pursued underanAmerican Council oœ Learned Societies grant-in-aid oœ research. •DonaldG. Creighton, ]ohn A. Macdonald(2 vols.,Toronto,1952, 1955), II, 460, 511, 527; Joseph Pope,ed., Correspondence of Sir Iohn Macdonald (New Yorkand Toronto, 1921 ), 435.For correspondence onthesubject oœ steamship communications, seePublicArchives oœ Canada (P.A.C.),Macdonald Papers, bundles 8/467;504;8/571; 4/573; 619; 620; 627; 628; 11/702; 12/702. SeeJohnL. Stevens, U.S. ministerin Hawaii,to Secretary oœ StateJames G. Blaine,no. 74, Nov. 20, 1892,UnitedStates, StateDepartment(U.S.D.S.), Despatches, Hawaii, XXV, printedin part in Papers 2O Vol. XLIV, no.1, March,1963 CANADA'S INTEBESTIN HAWAII 9.1 Only seven yearsafterthe Hawaiian-American reciprocity treaty of 1876wasratified, rumours wereafloat of thepossibility of a commercial treatywith Canada. TheHonolulu DailyBulletinof October 17,1883, reprinted fromtheSan Francisco Morning CallofSeptember 22,anitemtelegraphed fromOttawa thepreceding day.Reportedly, the Hawaiianconsul general for Canada hadhadseveral interviews with dominion officials in regardto extending traderelations with that country. The government promised to 16ok carefully intothe matterandwould"probably makediscrimination in dutyin favorof Hawaiian produce coming intoCanada" provided Canadian produce shipped totheislands received thesame consideration. Moreover, Hawaiian Premier Walter M. Gibsonwas showna news extract fromtheToronto Globe ofSeptember 27,1883, reporting that theCanadian government hadunderconsideration a policy for extendingtraderelations between Canadaandthe HawaiianIslands in viewof anearlycompletion oftheCanadian Pacific Railway. The Premier deemed it proper to bringthese matters to theknowledge of Minister HenryA. P. Carterin Washington andasserted thatthe Hawaiiangovernment had no information aboutthem from the consul general at Ottawa. Thegovernment hadtaken "nosteps whatevereitherdirectly orindirectly toopen communication withtheDominionGovernment with a viewto a commercial reciprocity." The government looked forward withconfidence to therenewal of treaty relations withtheUnitedStates, "andwhilealways pleased to seethe growing importance of these Islands recognized in all directions, has no desireto departfromthe national policywhichculminated in theTreatyof18767 Again,in September 1886,therewerereports to the effectthat negotiations hadbeeno enedthrough theColonial Office in London p with the Dominion,havin in view a reci rocit treat similarto that g Y Y which the United States Congress was t•en hesitating to renew. In the preceding yearHawaii's totalexports to andimports fromthe UnitedStates amounted in roundnumbers to $11,874,000, representingover 92percentofthevalue ofitswhole foreign commerce. Great Britainfollowed, though with onlyabout3• percent,thusleaving onlyatrifleover4 percenttobedivided among therestoftheworld. Thispreponderance of tradewith the UnitedStates wasduenot alone to geographical factors, buttothereciprocity treatyconcluded Relating tothe Foreign Relations o•the United States, 1894, App,; II, 377-784. For the prospect andadvantage of a connection through Canada openinga newalternative line of Imperialcommunication overthehighseas andthrough British Possession," seeGreat Britain,Houseof Commons, Sessional Papers, 1894,LVI [c. 7553], 117,290, 314-15. •Gibsonto Carter,Nov. 15, 1883,Archives of Hawaii (A.H.), ForeignOfficeand Executive Ffie,Minister andSpecial Commissioner toWashington. 22 TIlE GA_•TADIAN HISTOHICAL tLEVIEW between thelargerepublic andthediminutive kingdom in 1875(ratiBedin 1876)bywhichthegreatbulkoftheindigenous products and man•actures of thetwocountries wastobeadmitted dutyfreeinto eachcountry. Thisconvention encouraged thephenomenal developmentof the sugarindustry andbrought unparalleled prosperity to Hawaii,whoseexports leapedin valuefrom$2,241,000 in 1876to $8,958,000 in 1885,sugaraccounting for not lessthan $8,356,000. Nevertheless, by 1886,whenthe treatycameup for renewal, there wasin the UnitedStates a strong partycomposed mainly,but not exclusively, of the eastern SugarTrust,the sugar canegrowers of Louisiana, andthebeetsugar...