The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-07-07

prfatine- Not 40 much as civil by
your leave Trey simply drew the me
where they wanted IL. ard said tnss was
where IL should be- Forthwith Great
Britain, following her coionys iesd,
changed her maps ia Ike manner. FOR
the last six years. therefore. the mat
ter has been in dispute. The American
contention is that the treaty OF 10 meant
what It said. and the boundary should De
where that instrument placed IL Inc
British contention IS that me treaty
meant not what IL said. but something u
did not say. and the boundary snoula De
not whore the treaty put II. hut where
p-esen. British interests seem 70 aic-
tate
Nothtny could be more explicit than the
treaty OF rEs. IL says the boundary line
sahaH asceEd along the channel called
Portland channel" But Great Britain
now saws not Portland but Benin chan
mel was meant. Why? Portland means
Portland. II does not mean Benin, any
more than Hudson river means He'll
Gate. Portland channel was perfectly
well known at that time by that name. 1t
IS a piece OF gratuitous impertinence 10
say al this date, seventy years after. that
Benin channel was meant, and that STRAIT
ford Canning and Count Nesseirode nego-
tiated and signed an important treaty
without reading the text OF IL or knowing
bears evident insincerity upon It's face.
tust as did the tricky map-makIng of
lss9 II is Just such device as that re-
sorted to b. the same land-grabbing power
In Venezuela where Essequito is made
to read Orinoco.
As in the Venezuelan case. too. the Brit
ish motive is altogether patent. In Nefle-
zuela no movement for spoliation was
made until gold had been discovered and
. r., ha In 10
the British went in to gain control of the
whole Orinoco valley. So in Alaska. The
old and true boundary was left undis-
turbed and unchalleDged until great min
eral wealth had been discovered. Then
the British lines were arbitrarily ad-
yanced. TO take in the rich region and 10
secure control of the southern approaches
to the great Yukon basin. The value of
the territory in dispute, which covers an
area OF thousands of square miles. is al
most beyond calculation. IL has hundreds
OF miles OF accessible coast, some OF the
richest fishing waters in the world, the
chief coal mines of Alaska and gold and
other mineral deposits of inestimable
wealth. Its coal alone makes 1t of singu-
lar Importance TO this country, for it 10
one Of the two natural coaling stations
we have on the Pacific Coast The other
Is on Puget Sound. the entrance to which
Is dominated by the Gibraltar-like British
fortresses OF EsquimaIt. With the Alaska
mines taken from Us. and Puget Sound
closed, we should not have an accessible
coal field on the entire coast
british and American surveying parties
have now been In the field for some time
re-markins the rival boundary lines and
collecting data for the final arguments
over them. They are 10 finish their work
TINS year. and soon thereafter we shall
know TO whom the coveted territory is
henceforth to belong. 1t is estimated
that the British surveyors are doing their
work more thoroughly than ours. and
viii thus be able to present a stronger
case. However that may be, and how
ever the dispute may ultimately be de-
cided' IL Is we'll TO bear distinctly in
mind how the case originated, by what
methods Great Britain has pressed her
claims, and with what object she seeks
to acquire big slice of United States
tegrito-y.