Diplomatic Victory for USA

President Roosevelt declared: “This award is the greatest diplomatic victory of our times.” The President is careful to use the word “diplomatic”.

Continuing The Alaskan Boundary Settlement,
with a selection from Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 20 by F. C. Wade. published in 1914. This selection is presented in 1.5 installments, each one 5 minutes long. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in The Alaskan Boundary Settlement.

Time: 1903
Place: Border Between Alaska and Canada

The boundary arranged between England and Russia in 1825 was adopted word for word in the United States Treaty of purchase in 1867.

It would be hard to imagine a more faulty description. The southernmost point of Prince of Wales Island is not in the parallel of 54⁰ 40′, though it is very near it. The fine could not ascend north along Portland Channel without first traveling east seventy miles to the mouth of that channel. Nor does Portland Channel go north to the 56th parallel of latitude, but falls some miles short of it. From the 56th degree the line was to follow “the summit of the mountains situated parallel to the coast” until it should intersect the 141st degree of west longitude. The treaty is silent as to whether the mountains nearest the coast are meant or mountains farther away. In the absence of definite stipulation one would read it to mean the mountains nearest the coast, because after leaving the first mountains there is no possible principle on which any others could be selected. It was further provided that when the summit of the mountains “which extend in a direction parallel to the coast” should prove to be the distance of more than ten marine leagues from the ocean, the limit between the British possessions and the line of coast, which is to belong to Russia, should be formed by a line parallel to the windings of the coast, and which shall never exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom. On this wording many questions arose. What was the coast of an ocean? Was the mountain boundary to be an uninterrupted chain or a range, or would isolated peaks connected up with a line fulfil the description? What were the sinuosities to be followed when the mountains receded more than ten marine leagues?

The only point on which the contending sides agreed before the Tribunal was that the starting-point should be Cape Muzon, which is not situated in latitude 540 40′. As to Port land Channel, Canada contended that it was the channel run ning north of Sitklan, Kannaghunut, Pearse, and Wales Island. The United States contended that it was the channel running south of those islands. No other channel was suggested by any counsel before the Tribunal. With regard to the moun tains Canada contended that the mountains bordering the coast of the ocean were the only ones known to navigators at the time and to the negotiators of the treaty, and that they were the mountains referred to in the treaty. The United States contended that a definite unbroken mountain chain was intended by the treaty, and that no such chain existed, and that in default of a mountain chain it was necessary to draw the line of demarcation in all cases ten marine leagues from the ocean coast. They modestly added that by “the coast of the ocean” was meant the heads of all the inlets, some of them extending nearly a hundred miles from the ocean.

The question as to Portland Channel was merely one of identity. It could not be denied that Vancouver had christened the channel north of the four islands Portland Channel. The only reply of the United States Case was that the negotiators, although they had Vancouver’s charts before them, had not read his text. The Canadian contention was upheld. It was decided that the negotiators had read Vancouver’s text.

To the great surprise of the Canadian members when this question was brought up for formal answer, Lord Alverstone subdivided it into the following two questions:

1. Does Portland Channel run to the north of Pearse and Wales Islands?
2. Does Portland Channel run to the north of Sitklan and Kannaghunut Islands?

The United States Commissioners, who had always scouted the idea that the channel ran north of any of these islands, voted with the British Commissioners that it ran north of Pearse and Wales Islands. Lord Alverstone, who had drawn up the memorandum of judgment of all the British Commissioners that it unquestionably ran north of all the islands, suddenly voted with the United States Commissioners that it did not run north of the Sitklan and Kannaghunut Islands, but that “after passing to the north of Wales Island” it turned south down “the channel between Wales Island and Sitklan Island, called Tongass Channel.”

If this was a judicial decision, if this was not a compromise, is it not singular that at the moment when the United States Commissioners decided to change their mind as to two of the islands, and Lord Alverstone decided to change his judgment as to the other two, his Lordship was the one to come forward with a subdivided question which just met the new conditions?

As to the mountain boundary, the Canadian contention was that the line of mountains bordering on the coast and known as Mr. King’s line was the one intended by the treaty, and the one which should be accepted.

The finding of the majority of the Commission on this branch of the Case was almost as striking as that with reference to the islands. The United States’ objection to Mr. King’s line was that it did not constitute an absolutely continuous and unbroken chain, and therefore could not be accepted as the boundary. There were, they urged, no mountains within the ten -marine -league limit meeting the requirements of the treaty. The only course open to the Tribunal, therefore, was to adopt the ten-marine-league limit. The Tribunal decided, however, that Canada’s contention was correct, and that a continuous mountain chain was not necessary. This removed all objection to Mr. King’s line. They went further and decided that all that was necessary was to connect isolated mountain peaks, some of them as much as fifty miles apart from each other. They then selected a disconnected lot of peaks as near as possible to the ten-marine-league limit, and in all cases passing around the heads of the inlets and shutting off Canada from the ocean. Again the decision on the principle at issue was in our favor, only to be worked out in such a way as to make it worse than valueless to Canada. As the Canadian members of the Commission stated in their protest,

The Tribunal finds that the Canadian contention is correct as to the existence of mountains within the terms of the treaty: but the fruits of the victory are taken from Canada by fixing as the mountain line a row of mountains so far from the coast as to give the United States substantially nearly all the territory in dispute.”

They add:

We do not consider the finding of the Tribunal as to the islands at the entrance of Portland Canal or as to the mountain line a judicial one, and we have, therefore, declined to be parties to the award.”

This statement aroused the indignation of Lord Alverstone, who stated it to be beneath his dignity to furnish any reply or explanation. President Roosevelt declared: “This award is the greatest diplomatic victory of our times.” The President is careful to use the word “diplomatic.”

John W. Foster begins here. F. C. Wade begins here. Goldwin Smith begins here.

More information here and here, and below.

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