The sun., 1903-10-18
ALASKAN VICTORY PROBABLE.
BUT Tribunal has NOT YET
ANNOUNCED A DECISION.
Canadians Stubbornly Trying to Convince
Lord Aversion Estate Department
Expects to He Sustained on All
Material Points in Controversy.
Special Cable Despatch TO THE sun.

Special Cable Despatch TO THE SUN.
LONDON. Oct 17.-The announcement OF a
decision by the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal
may be deferred for some days. The
tribunal has adjourned until Monday.
What is happening in the secret sessions
is matter OF mcclure, but the fact that
documents and maps were again intro
duced yesterday and to-day goes to con-
firm the belief that Lord Alvers,one is in
clined to take the American side of the case.
The main issue is his vote. for it is def
nitely known that neither the commits
sioners from the United States nor those
from Canada have been converted by the
arguments of counsel The meaning of the
bsSre, or the fringe of land of thirty miles
mentioned in the treaty Of 1925, is believed
to have been taken by Lord Alverstone as
the Americans maintain, that is from the
border of the great tideways. and rot
from the outer littoral
After reading despat ch from Washing
ton stating that the State Department con-
sidered it had won the American case. a
member OF the tribunal said it would be
true IL the Canadians were not so stubborn
In their efforts to convince Lord Alver-
stcne that they were right in the det ails Of
geography Of the disputed territory. II
they succeed in doing 80, it will mean that
some compromise has been made.
WASHINGTON. Oct. 1.-THE State De-
partment received an official telegram
this afternoon from London. saying that
the Alaska tribunal had not reached an
agreement, but hoped to be able TO do so on
Monday. The authorities here, who may
have some inside information as 10 what
will be the outcome, are confident that the
tribunal will decide all material points in
favor of the United States.
If it be true, as reported in a press de-
spatch from London to-day, that the oom-
mission will sustain all the American con-
tentons except that with reference to the
Portland Canal, in which the Canadian
contention will be confirmed, all the land
and water territory claimed by the United
States, barring the insignificant Pearses
Island at the entrance to Portland Canal
and the western channel of that waterway,
will come into the possession of the United
States. Most of it is now under American
control.
The Portland Canal is at the extreme east
ern end OF the boundary. Great Britain has
always possessed the canals eastern chan
mel, and her desire to have tidewater
port near the klondike gold fields will not
be realized through the possession OF the
western channel. The Lynn Canal and.
in fact, all tidewater inlets near the gold
fields OF the Yukon and the Klondike will
be within American territory, so that any
British goods going TO OF from the Pacific
and the British possessions must pass
through American custom houses.
Another great disadvantage to Great
Britain will be that cargoes going by sea
from her northwest territory to American
ports must be carried In American bottoms.
The Portland Canal is too far away from
the Klondike to give England and Canada
any chance to compete with the United
States in trade with the Alaskan and British
gold fields.