| Have you ever wondered why the Alaska BC border looks so
very odd, what with a slim panhandle running one third of the way down
the BC coast?  Alaska was once owned by Russia. Their right was based on the
establishment of fur trading locations at places such as Wrangell and
Petersburg. and was confirmed in a treaty between Russia and the UK in
1825.
When the US purchased Alaska in 1867 they took over
what Russian maps showed to be Alaska. However the Russian maps
showed more land belonging to them than stipulated in the treaty of
1825, which was the last document to have set the boundary.
In 1872 British Columbia petitioned for an official
survey of the boundary. The U.S. repeatedly dismissed the request,
deeming it too expensive.
In 1898 a joint high commission met to discuss the
boundary dispute at which time both sides agreed to a compromise.
Unfortunately news of the compromise got out, and the western states
vehemently protested, forcing the U.S. to meekly drop the compromise.
Later that same year
Britain
and the U.S. met to decide on a tribunal to settle the dispute. They
could not find a compromise and discussions were halted.
When Teddy Roosevelt won the presidency, he applied
his motto, "speak softly and carry a big stick," towards
solving the dispute. Americans began a series of harassment measures
against Canada. Canadian miners in Alaska were denied certain
legal rights, because of a loophole in the Alaskan Homestead act of
1899. The U.S. also erected settlements along the Southern
Panhandle border. The final harassment was policy unofficially
adopted by U.S. shipping companies, which slowed Canadian shipments and
sped up U.S. shipments.
Finally in 1903 the Hay/Herbert Treaty called for a
six member tribunal, made up of three Americans, two Canadians and one
British member, to make a decision.
In January of 1903, the U.S. and Britain agreed on
a format to address the boundary dispute arbitration. Each side was to
appoint three impartial judges of repute. Legal teams would
present their cases and the tribunal would then render a decision.
Theodore Roosevelt made his three impartial
selections. He appointed Elihu Root, Secretary of War; Henry Cabot
Lodge, Senator from Mass, and George Turner Ex-Senator from
Washington. Using his Big Stick policy, Roosevelt sent word that
if the panel didn't find correctly he would send marines in to secure
U.S. rights.
So much for impartiality!
On the other side Britain appointed Baron
Alverstone, the Lord Chief Justice of England; Sir Louis A Jette, Lieutenant
Governor of the Province of Quebec; and Allen B. Aylesworth, K.C., From
Toronto. Canada was confident they would receive British support
due to the help they gave the British in the Boer War.
The reality of the situation was that Britain was
more concerned about their relations with the U.S. than with Canada.
British needed U.S. Steel and sympathies for an arms race with
Germany. Canada was a British Dominion. Thus its interests were
relegated to bargaining chips. The other reality was that the Canadian
Legal team had a weak case.
After three weeks of discussion and pouring over
every document that was relevant to the dispute, The tribunal... surprise,
surprise... voted in favor of the U.S. The Alaskan Boundary was
established on paper, and various expeditions were ordered to properly
survey the area. The Alaskan Boundary then faded from American
recollection.
This is not true for the Canadian Collective
memory. The deciding vote came from Baron Alverstone, the British member
of the tribunal. Canada thought the British would protect their
interests, and consequently view the dispute as a betrayal.
The Canadian Government reacted by changing its
policy in the North. They had been told that they could not keep the
Alaska Panhandle because they did not assert Canadian sovereignty there,
so they changed this by sending Northwest Mounted Police to areas in the
far North that were in danger of a similar dispute, such as Hershal
Island in the northern Yukon Territory.
(This fact goes along ways to justify exerting our sovereignty
over the northern ocean!)
Soon after the dispute the Canadian Government
raised the duties to bring goods across the border. This hurt the
economy of Skagway, the primary border town in the Yukon region.
Also, after gold was discovered in Atlin, B.C., the government
restricted the ownership of claims to those holding Canadian
citizenship. Both policies- the expensive duties and ownership rights-
were directed at Americans, apparently in revenge.
The Yukon initially reacted negatively to the
Council's decision, but positive results have come from it with
increased American investments in the Yukon and a strong Canadian
Presence with the Northwest Mounted Police.
Since the final decision was made on October 20th,
1903 the outcome of the Alaskan Boundary Tribunal has never been
seriously challenged by the US and Canada. |
