Valdez daily prospector., 1912-02-20
ALASKA PANHANDLE.

tiationS may be taken up, won deffully modifying the relations between the United States and Canada, between this country and Great Britain and between Can ada and it's mother country. Mex icu is also concerned.
 The situation in Arizona is that il cannot utilize it's arid lands without possessing the mouth of the Colorado river, which flows into the Gulf of Cal ifornia at it's head, passing through a portion of the Mexican province of Sonora; all arid des- "rt, but with irrigation, polcn- Iially fertile. Moreover, Arizona would be independent of the rail roads tn d great extent if il DOS S"sSrd d seaport. A seaport would give il a great impetus in trade. Arizona would like to buy that particular strip of Sonora. but Mexico refused tn sell an inch of :tS land, even though it. be d desert, practically uninhabitrd, and points out that if Arizona ac- quircS the California county of san Diego it. will possess access iO the sea. While this is true, ii does not solve the problem of the Colorado river.
 Hence it is proposed to make a Iro i,. f, l., ticular strip of Sonora and the whole of lower California to the United States in exchange for British Honduras, Uncle Sam par titiOning the newly acquired ter ritOry between California and Ari- ZOna, the latter merely obtain Ing new county, Sonora.
 Now the area of lower CalifOr- mia and the strip of Sonora want cd is about 7S,0O0 square miles, mostly arid with a population of i8.000, the trade being a ncglig- ible quantity. British Honduras has an area of S,593 square miles, with a population of iO,l5S and total foreign trade of &5,l63,597 U9l0-iI. This looks like a good exchange for Mexico. and as Brit iSh Honduras is immediately con i"rminOuS with it's southern bOun- diary and it's acquisition would all so strengthen iIs hold upon the rcbcllious province of Huratan. Mexico would be likely in consid- CT such bargain favorabIy.
 But British Honduras has first to be acquired. In exchange, this country has iO offer the Panhan- dle of Alaska, a strip of coun- try raSi of the iiisL meridian, about 526 miles long and from five tO 35 miles in width, about 10000 square miles in area. with a population of about 10000, and q trade which does not originate there, beyond the domestic needs of these inhabitants. From the point of view of exchange, there fore, that trade is negligible. On the other hand, it's possession by this country greatly hampers the opening of British Columbia and the Yukon, preventing their ac- cess to tidcwatcr. The settlement of that dispute in favor of the United States caused much i'll feeling in Canada, which by no means is allayrd. Hence Canada would be likely LO make some sacrifices, but not SO great as to exchange four times the popula- tion and 50 times the trade for nearly equal areas of land. This is seen, and hence the proposal is taking q wider scope.
 It is Proposed to exchange the whole of Alaska for British Hon. dnras and the whole of the Brit ish West Indies, with the cxcep- tiOn of Jamaica and the Barbados. This would give the United States n string of possessions extending from the coast of Florida to that of Venezuela, which, if purchases were made here and there from other European nations, would present barrier to the Gulf of Mexico which could not be passed by any foreign navy, if the strat- egic points were fortified.
 Now Alaska has an area of 590,SSi square miles, much of which is within the Arctic cir cle. The British possessions have q total area of fi,732 square miles, mostly cultivablc. The population of Alaska is 64,356; that of the British possessions