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The mournful story of the recent war in South Africa-a story replete with convincing proof that in the lexicon of this rapacious power there are no such words as honor, justice, or mercy-is found the bloody sequel. In the blackened ruins of desolated homes and the innumerable graves of the brave defenders of liberty and independence which dot the landscape from Spion Kop to Pretoria are the somber memorials of a crusade incited by cupidity and avarice, and waged with a relentlessness and ferocity seldom excelled by the savages of the jungles-a crusade entered upon with the deliberate purpose of establishing British sovereignty over the Transvaal gold mines.

The controversy over the Venezuelan gold mines is still fresh in the minds of Americans. The discovery of the mines was the signal for claim of sovereignty over a vast area to which theretofore Great Britain had made no claim. Geographers had concurred in describing this country as a part of Venezuela. The map makers, without exception, had included it within the boundaries of the republic. But when gold was discovered the British claim of ownership was brazenly asserted, and the little Republic was told that without parley or discussion this claim must be allowed. It was idle for Venezuela, in her weakness, to challenge the attention of Great Britain to the fact that for centuries the map makers had placed these lands within her borders. The freebooter nation was making ready to take the booty by force, and undoubtedly would have done so had not the United States intervened and compelled the arbitration of the controversy.

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Mr. Chairman, who would have believed that this great Republic would ever tamely submit to a similar outrage? And yet I affirm that that is precisely what we have done. It had been said, and truthfully, that the victims of these numerous aggressions were too weak to defend their rights, and it had been believed that had they been capable of self-defense no effort would have been made to despoil them.

But Americans have lived to see Great Britain take possession of American gold fields and establish on American soil a British settlement. They have seen American prospectors and miners expelled from American soil by the aggression of British constabulary and have seen British speculators and promoters seize and acquire title to the richest placer gold mines in the world, and they have seen an American Secretary of State acquiesce in this palpable invasion of American territory, contenting himself with a stipulation that at some future time the two Governments will try to reach an amicable agreement in the premises. So the matter stands.

Mr. Chairman, I declare that by the arts of diplomacy-by twirling our Secretary of State about his finger as a child might a cat's tail-Lord Pauncefote has accomplished in Alaska precisely what British armies have accomplished in other parts of the world by menace and by force. He has reduced to British ownership a vast region in which are the richest gold mines in the world.

I hold in my hand a complete digest and history of the Alaskan boundary controversy, written and contributed to the Franklin Institute Journal by

Thomas Willing Balch, a distinguished, capable, and conscientious investigator, student, and writer. No man can read it without coming to the conclusion that Great Britain never at any time between the date of the negotiation of her treaty with Russia fixing the boundary between Alaska and the British possessions and 1898 set up any claim of ownership of the disputed territory; that, on the contrary, the very territory now in dispute was held by Russia down to the time of our purchase of Alaska, and that we held it down to 1898 without intimation of a claim of title by Great Britain.

Furthermore, that during Russia's occupation of it the Hudson Bay Company, an English trading company, with the consent of the British Government, and the Russian Trading Company, with the consent of the Russian Government, entered into a contract by which a portion of the territory in dispute was leased to British traders by Russian traders, that the British paid a consideration, first in furs and other commodities, and later a cash consideration of $7,000 a year for the right of occupation of the territory to which they now claim title.

It only requires a casual investigation of public documents easily accessible to convince any investigator that there is no shadow of a foundation for the British claim to the territory she acquired by forcible invasion and holds by virtue of an agreement which is disgraceful to American diplomacy and a stigma upon national honor. Every line of the correspondence between Russia and England during the negotiation of the treaty fixing the boundary; the terms of

the treaty itself; every map known to the world during seventy-five years that elasped before the preposterous claim was advanced; the official charts of the British Admiralty; the geographies used in all the schools in Christendom, including the schools, colleges, and universities of Great Britain from 1828 until 1898-all these written and printed testimonials, coupled with Russian occupation until 1868, followed by American occupation until 1898, are arrayed against what-the forcible occupation of the country by the Canadian mounted police, and the naked and baseless claim of British ownership!

Mr. Chairman, as a full presentation of the case, I here present as part of my remarks, the whole case, the paper I have referred to. It quotes copiously from the diplomatic correspondence, and contains a concise history of the negotiations between Russia and Great Britain which resulted in fixing the bounddary so unmistakably that there is no possible ground for dispute:

[Here Mr. Cochran inserted, with the exception of the maps, the whole of "The Alasko-Canadian Frontier," as it was printed in the Journal of the Franklin Institute of March, 1902. Then Mr. Cochran resumed:-]

Mr. Chairman, I can add nothing to this document. It tells the whole story. It is drawn from official sources and is incontrovertible. It shows that seventyfive years ago Great Britain explicitly relinquished any pretense of ownership of the country she has deliberately invaded, and has ever since acquiesced in

the possession of it, first by Russia and later by the United States.

Concerning the great value of the gold mines situate in the region of which we have thus been despoiled, the American people are well informed, and if heretofore they have entertained a doubt of American ownership, a glance at the admitted facts here set forth will remove it.

Mr. Chairman, the origin of the preposterous and insolent claim to these gold fields is not obscure. It was trumped up by English and Canadians, speculators and adventurers, just as the claim to the African diamond mines and the conspiracy against the liberty of the Boers were invented by Cecil Rhodes and his copartners. The originators of the claim had forcibly invaded and occupied the country long before the claim of ownership was advanced. Having seized the country, they desired to reduce all that is worth anything within the boundaries to private ownership. With this in view, Lord Pauncefote, the British Minister, entered into negotiations with his very good friend, the Secretary of State. The result was a foregone conclusion.

Our State Department acquiesced in the suggestion that Great Britain should hold the conquered country pending a settlement. Sir, I use the word "conquered" advisedly. When we bought Alaska, the Russians, then in possession of this country, handed it over to us. We retained possession until 1897. Then the Canadian mounted police, an armed force, took forcible possession, expelled American prospectors and miners and American property owners from

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