ALASKA'S DISPUTED BOUNDARY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11492, 27 January 1903, Page 5

ALASKA'S DISPUTED BOUNDARY.

A TREATY FOR SETTLEMENT.

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received January 26tJi, 8.5 a.m.) WASHINGTON, January 25. Colonel John Hay, the United States Secretary of State, aaid the British Minister at Washington have signed a treaty for the settlement of the Alaska boundary dispute. The Commission is to consist of three jurists to be appointed on each side. (Received January 26th, 11.29 ,p.m.) LONDON, January 26. The New York correspondent of "The Times' , says that America accepts the Alaska Commission as a proof of England's friendship, and as a new and lasting bond of union. Probably the result will be a greater diplomatic triumph for all concerned than the Hay-Pauneefote treaty. It is expected the Sk'iiate will notify their

acceptance. "The Times" adds that Lord Chief Justice Alveretontj will probably be one of the British Commissioners.

The Alaska difficulty is a legacy of the Russo-Jinglish treaty "of 1825. It provides that the "boundary shall for a specified distance follow the summit of the mountains situate parallel to the coast, but whenever they are more than ten maritime leagues from the ocean the line shall be formed by a line parallel to the winding of the coast, which shall never exceed the distance of ten maritime leagues therefrom." With the sale of Alaska to the United States, the latter naturally took over the rights held under the treaty by Russia, and the exact nature of these' was questioned by Canada towards the close of the seventies. The ooa.vt is dee.pl v indited, and, while America claims that the ten leagues should be measured from the head of the remotest waterway, Canada contends that the wording applies only to the main coast, line. The importance of the point is that the Canadian claim, if sustained, would give Canada a free port to the great gold mining district of the Klondike.