[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR-")
SIR,—The article on "The Alaskan Boundary" in the Spectator of January 31st is in marked contrast to most of those which have appeared in the papers of the United States. In the latter much has been made of the idea that the Com-
mission is not for purposes of arbitration. The United•States refuse arbitration. Nothing less than what they claim
will be satisfactory. The Commission is merely an attempt to convince Great Britain of the justice of the American con- tention. The American jurists are regarded as not open to conviction; as beginning with fixed ideas in regard to the justice of the claim of the United States. As an example of this very un-British idea of an impartial tribunal, let me quote from an editorial " comment " in the current number of Harper's Weekly :—" This Commission has no power to bind . either of the parties. Its exclusive function is to inquire and report. There is but very little doubt, however, that if a majority of the Commission should report in favour of our
title, the report would be accepted by Great Britain, and em- bodied in a treaty, no matter how distasteful-the result might be to Canada. If all three of the British Commissioners were to be Canadians, there is reason to fear that no report would obtain the assent of a majority, and that consequently this attempt to fix the Alaska boundary would prove abortive. It is understood, however, that while Canada will be represented on the Commission, at least one of its members will be an English jurist, to whom the counsel of the United States might appeal with a certain amount of con- fidence." The calm assumption of the sentence before the last that the American Commissioners are sure to act as a unit for their own cause ought to be, one should suppose, a humiliating confession for such a paper to make rather than a cause of congratulation. It is the constant presence in the American papers and magazines of such sentiments as these, and of gibes and taunts at England, that exasperates Canadian readers, and makes them wish for the cheap Im- perial postage on newspapers which was advocated recently in your columns by a Toronto correspondent.—I am, Sir, &c.,
W. M. TWEEDIR.
Mount Allison College, Sackville, N.B., Canada.
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