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National Geographic : 1904 Jan
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE tries became involved, and a collision seemed imminent. A second time the services of General Scott were invoked, and he arranged for a joint and peace ful occupation by troops of the two na tions, but with difficulty were they able to prevent conflicts of the civil authori ties. Finally, when the Joint High Commission to arrange the Alabama claims and other matters met in Wash ington in 1871, the question of the true channel was submitted to the arbitra tion of the Emperor of Germany, and he rendered an award in favor of the contention of the United States. The foregoing review shows, first, what a perennial source of trouble have been our boundary disputes with Can ada, and what a threatening peril to our peace it is to leave them unsettled. It is seen that every step of the frontier line, from the initial point on the Atlan tic to the last water channel on the Pa cific, has been a matter of controversy, and sometimes of such bitter contention as even to threaten war. Second, our public men and the government have not found a strong title to territory a bar to the submission of boundary questions to the adjudication of a commission or an arbitrator. In repeated instances have we given up territory which has been in possession of our citizens for years. Third, while our northern boundary has been adjusted by means of treaties, com missions, and arbitration, the Alaskan Tribunal was the first instance in which an equal number of jurists from each government have sat as a court, observ ing the forms of judicial proceedings, and rendering a decision binding upon the parties litigant. The result of its labors certainly confirms the wisdom of the President and Secretary of State in devising this method of adjustment of a most embarrassing controversy. As there seems to exist in the public mind a vague and ill-defined idea of the questions at issue between the two gov ernments which were submitted to the Tribunal for adjudication, it may be well to make as brief a statement as may be of these questions. They depended entirely for their solution upon the con struction and application of the stipula tions of the treaty entered into in 1825 between Great Britain and Russia, This treaty defined the rights of the two par ties, first, in the North Pacific Ocean; and, second, on the northwest coast of North America. In order to accurately fix the latter a boundary line was agreed upon dividing the possessions of Russia from those conceded to Great Britain, and this boundary consisted of a water line and one upon the mainland. The rights of the parties continued to be governed by this treaty up to 1867, when Russia ceded and transferred all its territorial possessions in America to the United States, and in doing so she inserted in the treaty of cession to the United States the exact text of the treaty with Great Britain of 1825 relating to the boundary. Hence, in order to de termine the territorial rights of Alaska and Canada, recourse must necessarily be had to the Russo-British treaty. In the official and public discussion which preceded the treaty of January 24, 1903, creating the Alaskan Bound ary Tribunal, and in the document sub mitted by the two governments to that body, as also in the oral argument be fore it, much was said about the his torical facts and negotiations preced ing and attending the signing of the treaty of 1825, and the acts of the gov ernments and their officials since that event, such as the publication of maps and charts, occupation of the territory in dispute, and the admissions or state ments of officials. But it was conceded on both sides that all these matters had no other influence on the questions at issue than to aid in the interpretation of the stipulations of the treaty. The negotiators of the treaty of 1825, in setting forth the boundary line, were governed by the geographical knowl-
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