A history of Canada, 1763-1812

by Sir Charles Prestwood Lucas

Negotiations for a settlement of the boundary with the United States.

In 1872, the year after the entry of British Columbia into the Dominion of Canada, mining being contemplated in the northern part of British Columbia, overtures were, at the instance of the Canadian Government, made to the United States to demarcate the boundary, which had never yet been surveyed and delimited. The probable cost of a survey caused delay, and no action had been taken when in 1875 and 1876 disputes arose as to the boundary line on the Stikine river. The Canadian Government in 1877 dispatched an engineer to ascertain approximately the line on the river, and the result of his survey was in the following year provisionally accepted by the United States as a temporary arrangement, without prejudice to a final settlement. Negotiations began again about 1884, and, by a Convention signed The Convention of 1892. at Washington on the 22nd of July, 1892, it was provided that a coincident or joint survey should be undertaken of the territory adjacent to the boundary line from the latitude of 54° 40′ North to the point where the line intersects the 141st degree of West longitude. It was added that, as soon as practicable after the report or reports had been received, the two governments should proceed to consider and establish the boundary line. The time within which the results of the survey were to be reported was, by a supplementary Convention, extended to the 31st of December, 1895, and on that date a joint report was made, but no action was taken upon it at the time.

Discovery of gold at Klondyke.

In 1896 the Klondyke goldfields were discovered in what now constitutes the Yukon district of the North-West Territories, and in the following year there was a large immigration into the district. The goldfields were most accessible by the passes beyond the head of the inlet known as the Lynn canal, the opening of which into the sea is within what had been the Russian fringe of coast. The necessity therefore for determining the boundary became more urgent than before. In 1898 the British Government proposed that the matter Further negotiations. should be referred to three Commissioners, one appointed by each government and the third by a neutral power; and that, pending a settlement, a modus vivendi should be arranged. A provisional boundary in this quarter was accordingly agreed upon, but, instead of the Commission which had been proposed, representatives of Great Britain and the United States alone met in 1898 and 1899 to discuss and if possible settle various questions at issue between the two nations, among them being the Alaska boundary. They were to endeavour to come to an agreement as to provisions for the delimitation of the boundary

‘by legal and scientific experts, if the Commission should so decide, or otherwise’,

memoranda of the views held on either side being furnished in advance of the sittings of the Commission. Again no settlement was effected.

The Convention of 1903. Joint Commission appointed.

The dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela as to the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana, in which the Government of the United States had intervened, had, by a Convention signed in February, 1897, been referred to arbitration, the Arbitrators being five in number, two Englishmen, two Americans, and one representative of a neutral State. In July, 1899, before the award in this arbitration had been given, Lord Salisbury proposed to the American Government that a treaty on identical lines with the Venezuela boundary Convention should apply arbitration to the Alaska Boundary question. To this procedure, giving a casting vote on the whole question to a representative of a neutral power, the American Government took exception, and suggested instead a Tribunal consisting of ‘Six impartial Jurists of repute’, three to be appointed by the President of the United States and three by Her Britannic Majesty. A suggestion made by the British Government that one of the three Arbitrators on either side should be a subject of a neutral state was not accepted; and eventually, on the 24th of January, 1903, a Convention was signed at Washington, constituting a tribunal in accordance with the American conditions. The three British representatives were the Lord Chief Justice of England and two leading Canadians, one of them being the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec.

The preamble of the Convention stated that its object was a ‘friendly and final adjustment’ of the differences which had arisen as to the ‘true meaning and application’ of the clauses in the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1825 which referred to the Alaska boundary. The tribunal was to decide where Points for decision. the line was intended to begin; what channel was the Portland Channel; how the line should be drawn from the point of commencement to the entrance to the Portland Channel; to what point on the 56th parallel and by what course it should be drawn from the head of the Portland Channel; what interpretation should be given to the provision in the Treaty of 1825 that from the 56th parallel to the point where the 141st degree of longitude was intersected the line should follow the crest of the mountains running parallel to the coast at a distance nowhere exceeding ten marine leagues from the ocean; and what were the mountains, if any, which were indicated by the treaty.

Main point at issue.