Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-02-08
BROTHER JONATHAN VS.. JOHN BULL.
THE POINTS IN DISPUTE.

HE POINTS IN DISPUTE.
We give below the text of the Washing
ton Treaty providing for the settlement OF
the Alabame claims; the reason the Eng
lish press is so belligerent, and the amount
of our claims. Or readers will from this
summary have the issues now creating SO
much uneasiness on the two continents
WHAT THE TREATY SAYS.
The following are the portions of the
treaty which relate to points in dispute:
Whereas, Differences have arisen be-
tween the Government of the United
States and the Government of Her Britain
mic Majesty, and still exist, growing out
of the acts committed by the several YES
sells which have given rise to the claims
genera V known as the alabama claims;"
and
Whereas, Her Britannia Majesty has
authorized her High Commission and
| Plenipotentiaries to express, in a friendly
spirit, the regret felt by Her Majesty's
Government for the escape, under what
| ever circumstances, of the ALdb0nla and
other vessels from British ports, and the
depradations committed by those vessels.
| Now, in order to remove and adjust all
complaints and claims OH the part of the
! United States, and to provide for the
| speedy settlement of such claims which
are not admitted by Her Brittanic Males
! ty's Government, the high contracting
| parties agree that all the said claims grOtU-
ing out Of acts committed by the aforesaid
vessels, and generally k}1OtUn as the '1y0-
6dn10 cIOiDlS,' shall be referred to Tri-
bunal Arbitration, to be composed of five
arbitrator, : '* %i "Who shall pro-
ceed impartially and carefully to examine.
and decide all questions that shall be laid
before them on the part of the" respective
Governments.
The well informed Washington CORES
pondent of the New York Times under
date of February 18th gives the following
REASONS FOR THE EXCITEMENT.
The angry manner i'll which the English
press are discussing the claims of the
United States before the Geneva Con-
ference naturally attracts much attention
here The case of the United States has
been fully presented in England, and is
therefore much better understood there
than in this country. The circulation
of the volume known as The Case
of the United States has naturally been
very limited III this country, and hence
people are at loss to understand why the
English newspapers are getting into such
frenzy over it, This is explained on two
grounds. In the first place, the British
press has very thoroughly reviewed the
case as presented by the Government, and
they found it to be such an appalling in |
dlctment that it must inevitably carry |
judgment against them i'll the cases of at |
leS6t six OF seven out of the ten cruisers |
for whose operations direct damages are
claimed. The result being SO inevitable,
1t naturally begets fear that the claims
for indirect losses, such as the loss
in the transfer of the merchant ma.
rine to the British flag, the enhanced |
payments OflnSurance, land the prolongatiOn |
of the war, may also receive favorable con-
sideratiOn at the hands of the tribunal. In |
the second place, Parliament is about to |
assemble, and there is very natural de- |
sire to evoke from individually in that body |
such an expression of sentiment as will |
possibly have q moral effect on the Tri- |
bunal. Further than this neither Parlia-
ment nor Press can 80. The Tribunal |
cannot order the withdrawal of any claims
that have bean presented, no matter who
may request it. They pass judically upon
them, and either allow or reject them, so
the dispatch of to-day which represents the
London Times as declaringithat the Ameri-
can easel must be reformed before arbi-
tration can be concluded, is nonsense. The
Tribunal may rule out at the very outset |
the claims for indirect losses, but they can
no more order the case of the United States
to be withdrawn for amendment, at the
demand of Great Britain, than they can
refuse to hear the case at all. The only
thing Great Britain can do is to break up
the Conference by withdrawing her repre-
sentative altogether. But it is almost alb
surd to suppose that the British Govern
ment would do anything of that character
in any event. yet the dispatch from Lon
don, quoting the Times, is accepted here
as meaning that if it means anything.
Great Britain having already accepted the
Jurisdiction of the Conference, and having
her plea, it is a question, even if
she should go to the extreme of withdraw
al, whether the Conference could not still
the consideration of the case and
give judgment according to the evidence.
AMOUNT OF OUR CLAIMS.
The following table gives the number
and value of our vessels destroyed by the
privateers: