The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-23
ALASKAN BOUNDARY.
DR.. NJ e n d e nh a II
Speaks Before APP
palachian Club.
THE CONTROVERSY SETTLED.
The Entire Dispute Re-
viewed in Detail by
the Authority.
THE CONTROVERSY SETTLED.

Prof. T. c. Mendenhall spoke before
the Appalachian club in Boston, last
evening on THE Alaskan boundary
line" His talk was excellently illus
trated by stereopticon views. He said
in part
Disputes over boundary lines have al
ways been most difficult of settlement.
Most nations are reluctant to give up
territory, even when it is apparently Of
little value, immediate or prospective.
The United States has been more nearly
an exception to this rule than any other
great nation. This is undoubtedly ow
ing to the enormous extent of our orig
inal possessions, considered in relation
to our comparatively small population.
Because our territory has been gener-
ally far in excess of the demands of
our people, we have been Indifferent
and careless as to the disposition of
outlying regions, which have not, for
the time, seemed of much concern to
our welfare. Most of our controversies
have been with a nation whose policy
is always the exact opposite of this; a
nation which promptly seizes all that
comes within its reach, and never gives
up a foot. In all our boundary disputes
with Great Britain we have been worst
ed; that is, we have yielded territory
to which our claim was as good as hers
and often better
THE BOUNDARY LINE BETWEEN
ALASKA
and British Columbia, now under dis
cussion, is involved in peculiar difficult
ties. Its Importance has greatly in
creased within the last two or three
years on account of the discovery and
development of rich mining resources
in its neighborhood. 1t ought to have
been fixed long ago, and might have
been with vastly less irritation and
friction than are now unavoidable.
The desirability of coming to an
agreement with Great Britain was long
ago recognized by all who are familiar
with the facts, but one administration
after another has found itself so oc-
cupied with otherA generally much less
important, affairs, that it was easier
to postpone than to act.
The difficulty is one which we Inherit
ed from Russia, and it arises primarily
out of the unfortunate and ambiguous
definition of the boundary found in the
treaty between Russia and Great Brit
ain in 1925. When we bought Alaska in
1867 we bought that definition and all
of the trouble to which it must neces-
sarily give rise. All nations ought to
have learned long ago that boundary
lines should be defined astronomically.
The latitude and longitude of any point
on the earth may now be determined
with almost any desired degree of pre-
cision. Naturally boundary marks,
such as rivers and mountains, although
apparentlymeeting every requirement.
are far from satisfactory. Rivers
change their courses; we have had dis
putes growing out of this fact, and we
had a long controversy with Great
Britain to determine which river was
the st. Croix of the treaty. Mountains
are enormously named, and often do
| not really exist as shown on an ex-
plorers map. Much of the trouble over
the Alaskan boundary has arisen out
of confusions of this sort. English and
American astronomers would never diff
fer, sensibly, over the location of the
141sE meridian.
Fortunately a large part of the Alas
kan boundary lineis astronomical, 1t is
that part which proceeds from point
near the summit of Mt. St Elias along
the 141st meridian west of Greenwich
| to the Arctic ocean. Over this there
| is no dispute, or if a dispute should
ever arise 1t can easily be settled. The
| line separating what is known as
Southeast Alaska from British Column
bia, beginning at the most southerly
point of Prince of Wales Island and
| ending near the summit of Mt St.
Elias, is the subject Of the present con-
| troversy.
The language of the treaty is as fol-
| lows: Commencing from the south
ernmost point of the island called
Prince of Wales Island, which point lies
in the parallel of 81 degrees, Al seconds
/ north latitude, and between the 131st
and 1880 degree of west longitude (me-
ridian of Greenwich), the said line
| shall ascend to the north along the
channel called Portland Channel as far
as the point of the continent where it
strikes the seth degree of north lati-
tude; from this last mentioned point
| the line Of demarcation shall follow the
summit of the mountains situated par
allel to the coast as far as the point
| of intersection of the Hist degree of
west longitude (of the same meridian)
and finally, from the said point of in
tersection, the said meridian line of
the 141st degree, is its prolongation as
far as the Frozen Ocean"
The first serious difficulty is to de-
| termine what is meant by "the chan
mel called Portland Channel" Our
| friends the enemy interpret this to
mean that on leaving the southernmost
|
| line must be drawn at once to the
north to the 56th parallel of north lati-
tude, and this carries it to the west of
the great Revilla Gigedo Island into
Burroughs Bay, thus throwing that
island and a large block of the main
land under their jurisdiction. In or
der to enter what has always been
known as Portland Channel it is ne
cessary to proceed from the beginning
LOT ri nf al nd CT iy11f TO
the east for about sixty miles, and then
| ascend to the north along the chan
nel' which is the line we claim. The
omission of this easterly line from the
treaty opens the door for the British
contention, and to support it they
maintain that the use of the name
Portland Channel was an oversight
We contend, on the contrary, that the
omission of the fifty or sixty miles of
casting from the southernmost point
| of Prince of Wales Island is of no spe-
cial importance because any one would
understand that before you could as
cend along the channel you must get
| into it. On the seth parallel, therefore,
the two claims are separated by the
distance from Burroughs Bay to the
head of Portland Channel, a matter of
about IS miles. From this point until
lthey come together near Mt st. Elias
| they continue to be apart by about the
same distance. Roughly, then, there is
in dispute an irregular strip of terri
tory about 700 miles long, with an av-
erage width of 35 to 40 miles, nearly
three and half times the area of the
state of Massachusetts. The line con-
tended for by the British follows the
shore from Burroughs Bay to the
mouth of the Stikine river, thence, still
as close to the shore as it can be shown
upon an ordinary map, to the Taku
Inlet, which it crosses at the southern
end and then, turning to the west, it
crosses Lynn canal, leaving all Of that