328 VENEZUELA AND AFTER 



the arm of the ocean that afforded the most 

 practicable access to the Klondike gold-fields, 

 which were mostly on Canadian soil. The 

 interests at stake were very great and the 

 conflict was correspondingly stubborn. When 

 agreement became impossible in the confer 

 ences of the commission, the British representa 

 tives offered arbitration, but the Americans 

 refused consent to any form of tribunal that 

 left the decision to an umpire, and the British 

 rejected as futile any tribunal that might be 

 deadlocked. In such an impasse there was no 

 recourse but to give up the matter, since the 

 Canadians had consented to the commission 

 largely in the expectation of a favorable out 

 come on this point, and had been ready to make 

 substantial concessions in other directions in 

 order to attain their purpose here. 



The inauspicious result of this first attempt 

 to reap a crop of adjustments from the inter 

 national cordiality produced by the Spanish 

 War did not prevent a further cultivation of 

 the field. Apparently the first attempt had 

 been too ambitious had sought returns of too 

 diverse a character. Taken one at a time in 

 stead of collectively, the problems calling for 

 solution might be more successfully handled. 



