BLUFF AND BLUSTER. 15

A St. Petersburg dispatch_recently announced that Edwin and Thomas Balch, of Philadelphia, were in the capital of the Russian empire for the purpose of collecting information and material with regard to the boundaries of Alaska.

Thomas Willing Balch is an authority on the question of the Alaskan boundaries. At the annual meeting of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, on January 15, 1902, he read a highly instructive and valuable paper on "The Alasko-Canadian Frontier." This paper, which was subsequently published in book form proved conclusively that "There is no more reason for the United States to allow their right to the possession of this unbroken Alaskan lisière (strip of territory) to be referred to the decision of foreign judges, than would be the case if the British Empire advocated a claim of sovereignty over the coast of Georgia or the port of Baltimore and proposed that this demand should be referred to the judgment of subjects of third powers."

The fact that Mr. Thomas Balch is collecting further material for the purpose of proving the absurdity of Great Britain's claims regarding the Alaskan frontier will be hailed with satisfaction by the numerous Americans who have long admired the patriotic Philadelphian's intelligent opposition to the absurd pretensions set forth by a government which hopes to extend its Pacific seaboard in North America through bluff and bluster.

15 Editorial from the Press-Knickerbocker and Albany Morning Express, July 5, 1902.

ALASKA BOUNDARY."

TWO PHILADELPHIANS SEARCHING FOR ORIGINAL

RECORDS.

AN INQUIRY AT ST. PETERSBURG WHICH MAY CONTRIBUTE TO THE SETTLEMENT OF THE DISPUTE WITH GREAT BRITAIN.

[Special to the Public Ledger.]

WASHINGTON, July 11 [1902].

Two young men from Philadelphia, Pa., Thomas and Edwin Balch, are now in St. Petersburg engaged in a search which, if successful, will end the dispute between this country and Great Britain over the Alaskan boundary and dispense with the modus vivendi of October 20, 1899, signed by Sec. of State John Hay and Reginald Tower.

Officials of the State Department, Washington, although asserting that the Balch brothers have no recognized status with the government, admit that they are and have been from the first fully aware of their mission and hope they will succeed. One official said:

"The Balch brothers are simply investigating the matter as one would investigate any scientific subject, to gain more knowledge. One is a geographer and the other a student of International Law, but both have entered upon this labor con amore. We wish them every success and, of course, should they make any

16 Public Ledger, Philadelphia, July 12, 1902.

valuable discovery, the United States would probably profit by it, but they really have no official status."

It is admitted that the Balchs visited the State department before starting on their mission and had a consultation with the officials.

Since Vitus Behring, a Dane, naturalized in Russia, sailed through the strait to which he gave his name, in 1740, several surveys of the peninsula have been made. Naval Captains Krenitzen and Levascheff surveyed the peninsula and charted its coast in 1768, but the extent of their work is not now known, unless their reports are still on file at the Russian capital, as the Balchs hope. Further efforts in this line were made by Juan Perez in 1774 and two years later James Cook visited Alaska.

George Vancouver was sent to Alaska by Great Britain in 1792 to resurvey the coast and determine the liability of Spain for the seizure of three small British vessels the previous year, and it is probable that the geographers will investigate the report of his findings before concluding their researches.

The first differences as to the exact land boundaries between Alaska and the United States were settled by a convention signed in St. Petersburg in 1824. This was followed the next year by a convention between Russia and Great Britain, under which the Hudson Bay company was excluded from the seacoast north of latitude 54 degrees, 40 minutes, and from the then unknown territory north of the St. Elias Alps, divided by the 141st meridian west of Greenwich.

Another survey was made which lasted for six

years, from 1826 to 1832, and in 1835 Russia established an admirable meteorological and magnetic observatory in Sitka.

[Similar articles appeared in 1902 in The Press, Philadelphia, July 3; The Sun, Baltimore, July 12; The Herald, New York, July 13; The Record-Herald, Chicago, July 13; The Patriot, Jackson, Michigan, July 24; The North American, Philadelphia, August 3; and in other papers.-EDITOR.]

SPEECH OF THE HON. CHARLES F. COCHRAN, MEMBER OF CONGRESS FROM MISSOURI, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ON THE ALASKA BOUNDARY, JANUARY 20, 1903.17

Mr. Cochran said:

MR. CHAIRMAN:-At the last session of Congress I introduced a resolution calling on the Secretary of State for certain information concerning the removal of ancient monuments marking the true boundary of the American territory in Alaska which has been occupied and governed for more than five years by British military and civil officers. At that time the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee gave us to understand that negotiations were in progress look

17 District of Columbia Appropriation Bill.

Speech of Hon. Charles F. Cochran, of Missouri, in the House of Representatives, Tuesday, January 20, 1903.

The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and having under consideration the Bill (H. R. 16842) making appropriations to provide for the expense of the Government of the District of Columbia for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904, and for other purposes. The Congressional Record, March 2, 1903, page 3117.

ing to the settlement of what he misnamed the controversy concerning that boundary line.

In my judgment the controversy is over the forcible occupation of territory to which the British have no shadow of a claim and over which our sovereignty is as just and incontestable as it is over the Indian Territory or Oklahoma.

Like Venezuela, The Transvaal, and the Orange Free State, the United States has witnessed British occupation of a rich mining region, followed by a chain of title; but unlike those weak and defenseless countries, we have evinced no resentment of the outrage. It is in line with the traditional policy and conduct of the British Government, excepting only the fact that in general its depredations have been committed against countries too weak to defend themselves.

The discovery of the diamond mines in the Orange Free State, followed by the development of the Transvaal gold mines, sealed the doom of the South African Republics.

The discovery of gold mines in Venezuela would have sounded the death knell of Venezuelan independence had it not been for the intervention of the United States.

In the case of the South African diamond mines the unlawfulness of their appropriation was so flagrant that long after the commission of the crime the matter was taken up by British clergymen, and the enormity of the offense was made so manifest that a veritable storm of public indignation compelled the authorities to pay a paltry sum as pretended compensation for stolen property worth many millions.