[Memorandum.]
Washington, July 24, 1899.
The Secretary of State, at the invitation of the British Government, has indicated on the accompanying map what is in his opinion the best line for a modus vivendi in the region of the Klehini River, but as this line diverges a little from that formerly suggested by the Secretary of State he feels a word of explanation is required.
The Secretary of State proposed the junction of the Chilkat and Klehini rivers as a convenient point for a temporary dividing line between the American and British jurisdictions, pending the negotiations between these two Governments as to the permanent boundary; and, as the thoroughfare through that region is the Dalton trail, he thought it expedient to mark the point on that trail where it crosses the river. The British Government has shown with great force that this latter point was too vague, and that the bank of the river from its mouth to where it is crossed by the trail was almost impossible to define, owing to the shifting of the channel and the changes in its course. They therefore proposed a line across the valley from certain mountains lying to the southwest through the junction of the Chilkat and the Klehini to the mountains on the northeast; but this threw under British jurisdiction a large number of Americans who are at work along the banks of Porcupine Creek, from whom it was not available for the American Government to withdraw its protection, and in whose interest this Government has been constantly acting.
[Page 324]Mr. Tower, by direction of his Government, now asks that the Secretary of State shall indicate on the accompanying map the lines which in the judgment of the American Government will be most appropriate for the purpose designed. There is no line to the south of the Klehini but will violate the very intention of the entire negotiation by placing a large number of Americans under Canadian jurisdiction. The line of the river Klehini is shown by the British and Canadian representation to be difficult, if not wholly impracticable to define, an opinion in which the Secretary of State, after fuller information and more careful study of the facts, is inclined to agree. There is, therefore, no other alternative than to take the most convenient series of hills on the north of the Klehini and draw the line through them, and through the junction of the Chilkat and Klehini, and thence to the range on the east.
It is true that this line lies a short distance north of the one formerly suggested by the Secretary of State. If this fact presents an insuperable objection to the acceptance of the line by the British Government, the Secretary of State will not insist upon it, but will fall back to the river, and make the best of that inconvenient and unsatisfactory line; providing, in that case, that the Americans on the Porcupine Creek shall have the means of free ingress and egress by crossing and recrossing the river. But, in view of the fact that there are many Americans both north and south of the river, and, as far as is known, no British subjects south of the line now indicated on the map, it is hoped that it may be considered convenient by Her Majesty’s Government to adopt this line as a temporary arrangement, without prejudice to the claims of either Government.
In any case the Secretary of State renews his confident hope that whatever arrangement is made the citizens or subjects of either power who may thereby be found in the jurisdiction of the other may have the same rights and privileges which they now enjoy.