ALASKAN BOUNDARY COMMIS SION, a mixed tribunal which met in London, England, 3 Sept. 1903 to arbitrate on the con tentions of the Canadian government with re gard to the boundary line between Alaska and Canada, from Mount Saint Elias to the Port land Canal. The commission consisted of three Americans and three Britons, the American commissioners being Secretary Root, Senators Lodge and Turner, while the British commis sioners were Lord Alverstone (formerly Sir Richard Webster), English, Sir Louis Jette and Mr. A. B. Aylesworth, Canadians. Ex Secretary Foster was counsel for the American side and Mr. Clifford Sif ten for the British side.
In May 1898 the United States and Great Britain agreed to appoint an Anglo-American Joint High Commission to consider and put on a satisfactory basis the regulations of the North Atlantic fisheries, commercial reciprocity, the Bering Sea fishery question and other disputes which disturbed relations between the United States and Canada. When the questions for the deliberation of this commission were fixed, no mention was made by Great Britain of any di vergence of opinion regarding the Alaskan boundary,— but on 1 Aug. 1898 the British government informed the United States that a difference of views existed as to the provisions of the treaty of 1825, which defined the Anglo Russian boundary. On 23 August Great Britain submitted its claims, enumerated below. It was roposed to arbitrate the matter, but the High Joint Commission could not agree. The United States rejected a European umpire for American territory and the Canadians would not agree to an American judge. The final compromise was the above-mentioned tribunal.
Previous to the discovery of gold in the Yukon region there was no dispute, or occasion for dispute, as to the course of the boundary line defined by the Anglo-Russian treaty of 1825. For 73 years it had been tacitly recog nized by all nations, including Great Britain. The history of that treaty is interesting. The government of the Tsar had from time to time by ukase asserted exclusive jurisdiction over the coast lands and the waters of Alaska, to prevent any encroachment by the British Hud son's Bay Company upon the monopoly of the Russian-American Fur Company which had established its stations and carried on its trade in the islands and along the coast of Alaska extending northward from the Portland Canal. Disputes arose, and in the attempt to settle them the negotiations were begun which led to the signing of the treaty of 1825. The purpose of Russia in that negotiation was altogether to shut out Great Britain from the coast and the waters in which the Russian company was carrying on its business. The attempt of Great
Britain was to secure a foothold upon the coast with the obvious purpose of getting an oppor tunity for the Hudson's Bay Company to estab lish its stations there, which was the very thing Russia sought to prevent.
The negotiations lasted from 1822 to 1825, Count Nesselrode and M. de Poletica conduct ing the Russian case, and Sir Charles Bagot first and Lord Stratford de Redcliffe finally, the British case. At that time Great Britain feared that the United States would insist upon retaining possession of the whole Oregon terri tory up to the Russian line at the historic parallel of 51• 40'. This would have shut off Canada from the Pacific coast entirely, and the British, therefore,' made strenuous efforts to get an outlet through the Russian coast strip, making various propositions, one after the other which the Russians rejected, stubbornly adher ing to their original proposition, which in the end prevailed.
The British first asked to have the boundary line drawn straight down the 141st meridian to the sea at Mount Saint Elias, thus depriving Russia of the entire •panhandle) of and causing her even to relinquish Sitica, the colonial capital. This was peremptorily re jected by Russia without serious consideration. The British next proposed Christian Sound, Chatham Strait and Lynn Canal as the bound ary, leaving Baranoff Island to Russia, but giv ing to the British Juneau, Admiralty Island, and everything to the south and east thereof. This was also rejected. Then Clarence Strait and the Stikine River were proposed, leaving Prince of Wales Island to Russia, but giving to Great Britain the islands of Wrangell and Revilla-Gigedo. This also the Russians re jected. Finally the British commissioners con ceded to Russia the whole strip down to 54* 40', but sought as a last resort to have the coast line drawn straight across such arms of the sea as Glacier Bay and Lynn Canal, from head land to headland, so as to give the British ac cess to tidewater. This, too, the Russians, in exorably refused to grant, and in the end they won on this point as on all the others. From first to last the constant and inflexible Russian contention was for Russian possession of an unbroken strip of coast from Mount Saint Elias to Portland Canal, and in the treaty of 1E25 that contention was explicitly upheld and confirmed.