456 THE ALASKAN BOUNDARY 



there had been a peaceful and undisputed occupation and exer- 

 cise of sovereignty for more than seventy years, and that no 

 question respecting this occupation and sovereignty had been 

 raised by the British government until the present commission 

 had been created. They challenged their British colleagues to 

 cite a single instance in history where a subject attended with 

 such circumstances had been submitted to arbitration, and in 

 declining the British proposition they proposed the plan of set- 

 tlement which had been framed by Secretary Olney and Sir 

 Julian Pauncefote in 1897. The treaty which these two distin- 

 guished statesmen framed so carefully marked the most ad- 

 vanced stage yet attained for the peaceful settlement of inter- 

 national questions not susceptible of adjustment by diplomatic 

 negotiation. In that convention, drafted with a view to " con- 

 secrating by treaty the principle of international arbitration," 

 they provided that all such questions should be submitted to 

 arbitrators and an umpire, except territorial claims. They 

 recognized that territorial questions affected so vitally the sov- 

 ereignty and honor of nations that as to them a different method 

 was necessary, and they provided that these should be sub- 

 mitted to a tribunal of three judges of the highest standing in 

 each country, and that a binding decision could only be ren- 

 dered by a vote of five of the six judges.* The American 

 commissioners embodied this plan in their proposition for the 

 settlement of the Alaskan boundary dispute, with the modifica- 

 tion that a binding decision might be rendered by four of the 

 six judges. 



This proposition was rejected by the British commissioners, 

 and, no other plan being brought forward, the Joint High Com- 

 mission adjourned with the understanding that the boundary 

 question should be referred back to the two governments for 

 further diplomatic negotiations. 



*U. S. Diplomatic Correspondence, 1896, art. vi of treaty, p. 239. 



