The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1895-11-13
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER IS, 1895
THE Alaska BOUNDARY.

A territorial dispute similar To that in
Venezuela, but in which this country is
far more directly concerned, is rapidly
approaching the critical stage. That is,
the question of the boundary line be-
tween Alaska and British Colum bia.
For several years it has been a matter of
negotiation between the two govern
mente, and much has been published on
the subject. AS will be seen, there is at
present a well-defined boundary line,
accepted and contended for by this
country. 1t was laid down by the treaty
of 1925, between Ruesia and Great
Britain. 1t was accepted and recognized
without dispute by Russia, by Great
Britain, by the United States, by the
Hudson Bay Company, and by the Do
minion OF Canada, down to 1887. Then
the Canadian government suddenly dis
covered it was all wrong. They declared
that the treaty of 1925 did not define the
boundary correctly; it was ambiguous,
and was drawn by men who did not
know what they were about. For ex-
ample, it says the line shall run up
Portland channel, when it really means
Behm channel. How do we know the
treaty makers meant Benin when they
said Portland? Because. say the Cana
dians, Portland channel had not at that
time been named. Really, it seems, to
mere Yankee, rather funny that the
negotiations of that treaty should have
mentioned by name, as weli-known
thing, something that had not yet re-
ceived q name! Strange, too, that the
channel should not yet have been named
in 1925, when it was explored and
named, by It's present name, by Captain
Vancouver IN 1898!
Again, the treaty provides that the
boundary line shall follow the highest
ridge of the mountains, provided it be
not more than ten marine leagues from
the coast. Where the ridge is further
inland, or where there is no ridge, the
boundary shall be ''formed by a line
parallel to the windings of the coast" at
distance of ten marine leagues there
from. Now that coast is exceedingly
irregular, and is fringed with an almost
continuous chain of islands, some of
them of considerable width. The Amer
lean contention has been that the
''coast" means the mainland, and that
the phrase ''windings of the coast"
means that the distance is to be meas
ured inland from the innermost extrem-
tiles of all large bays and CULTS, as we'll
as from the outermost extremities OF
hnoIloHIo Tho Gan obi
On the other hand, have argded that by
Coast is meant the outer shores of the
islands; or that, at any rate, the ten
league measurements must be made
from the main channels of coast waters,
and from lines drawn boldly across from
headland to headland, and not from the
indentations. As there is no well-de.
fined mountain ridge, the line will have
to be drawn parallel with the coast.
The width of the panhandle" of Alaska
will therefore vary by many miles,
. according as one or the other of these
systems of reckoning is adopted. OF the
value of the property in dispute there
can be no question. 1t is capable oil
producing every year more wealth than
the whole purchase price of Alaska.
England cannot be blamed for wanting
it, if she can prove it to be fairly hers.
Certainly the United States canno;
afford to relinquish it except upon the
most convincing proofs. But, however.
the dispute may be settled, we think in
fluences will be at work which will com.
pei dispassionate consideration of it,
The British will not be permitted te
''rush'' the American position as they
would Nicaraguan port or Matabele
kraal.-N. Y. Tribune.
In an interview at Walla Waila re.