Volume VII.—RECENT HISTORY

(1901 TO 1910)

A to Z

SPRINGFIELD, MASS.

THE C. A. NICHOLS CO., PUBLISHERS

1910

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Copyright, 1910, BY J. N. LARNED.

_The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company

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PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH VOLUME

In the preface to the Sixth Volume of this work, published in the spring of 1901, it was remarked that the last half-dozen years of the Nineteenth Century, which that Volume covered, had been filled with events so remarkable and changes so revolutionary in political and social conditions that many people had asked for an extension of my work to report them. The years then reviewed disclosed only the beginnings of what the decade since has been developing, in movements and achievements so varied, so numerous, in such rapid succession, with effects so profound and so problematical, that their appeal to our interest seems the strongest that has come to us yet from human history. That the interest in them justifies this further extension of my compilation of "recent history" has been made clear to me by the frequency of the suggestions of another Volume which have come to the publisher and to myself. In the new Volume I have striven to make a clear exhibit of all these strangely pregnant evolutionary and revolutionary movements of the present time, which are traversing all divisions and institutions of all society, occidental and oriental, along all the lines of its organization,—international, national, municipal, political, industrial, intellectual, moral,—leaving nothing in life untouched.

A few indications of the subjects dealt with most extensively in the Volume may convey some idea of its scope, and of the aims pursued in its preparation. For example: "Railways" and "Combinations" ("Trusts"), treated mainly as the subjects of regulative governmental action, occupy 38 pages in all. "Labor Organization" fills 25 pages with the incidents of its trade unions, labor parties, strikes, mediations, arbitrations and industrial agreements. "Labor Protection" receives 6 pages, for the account of what has been done in various countries in the matters of employers’ liability, industrial insurance, hours of work, etc. "Labor Remuneration" receives 9 pages, for the reporting of experiments in cooperation, profit-sharing, wages-regulation, pensions, etc. Various dealings with the problems of "Poverty and Unemployment" are set forth in 8 pages; similarly the problems of "Crime and Criminology" receive nearly 6; those of the Liquor Traffic 9; those of the Opium evil, 3. The development of organized work for "Social Betterment" is traced in 5 pages; that of reform in "Municipal Government" in 12. The "Race Problems," which are troubling many countries and people, are depicted in 15 pages. Twenty-six pages are given to the Educational history of the last decade; recent "Science and Invention" are reported in 16. "Children under the Law" are the subject of 8 interesting pages on recent legislation touching the young.

The contradictory states of temper in the world on the subject of War are depicted under two contrasted headings—"War, The Preparations for" and "War, The Revolt against," in particulars which fill 35 pages. Of the one great war of the period, between Japan and Russia, and the triumph of mediation which brought it to a close, the narrative, in about 20 pages, is full. The story of the late revolution in Turkey is told authentically in 9 pages, and that of Persia in 10. The abortive attempts at revolution in Russia, and the sham of constitutional government conceded, have their history in 18 pages. The signs of wakened life in China are described in 12. The discontent of India and Lord Morley’s measures of reform in the

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British-Indian government, enlarging the native representation in it, are set forth broadly in 15. Generally, as concerns the British Empire, the interesting conditions that have arisen in it very lately, adding South Africa to the group of unified Colonial Dominions, which are young British nations in the making, and drawing them all into a league with the "Mother Country" for organized imperial defense, are amply portrayed. So, too, are the agitations in recent British politics at home, which have arisen from an increasing antagonism between popular interests represented in the House of Commons and class interests intrenched in the House of Lords. In American politics, the remarkable invigoration and freshening of spirit which characterized the administration of President Roosevelt are made apparent in a broad exhibit of their many effective results.

As was said of Volume VI., it can be said, I think, with even more truth of this, that it presents "History in the making,—the day by day evolution of events and changes as they passed under the hands and before the eyes and were recorded by the pens of the actual makers and witnesses of them."

As an appendix to the present Volume, a new feature, related to the whole work, has been introduced. It offers a considerably extensive series of systematic courses for historical study and reading, the literature for which is supplied in the seven Volumes of "History for Ready Reference." This has been prepared in response to many requests which the publishers have received. Even for casual investigations it will be found serviceable to every possessor and user of the work.

J. N. L. Buffalo, New York, May, 1910.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to the following named authors and publishers for permission kindly given me to quote from books and periodicals, all of which are duly referred to in connection with the passages borrowed severally from them:

The publishers of The American Catholic Quarterly Review, The American Monthly Review of Reviews, The Associated Prohibition Press, The Atlantic Monthly Magazine, The Boston Transcript, The Century Magazine, The Contemporary Review, The Fortnightly Review, The New York Evening Post, The New York State Journal of Medicine, The Nineteenth Century Review, The North American Review, The Outlook, The Times (London), Messrs. T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co., Messrs. E. P. Dutton & Co., Messrs. Harper & Brothers, Messrs. Henry Holt & Co., Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Company, Messrs. John Lane Company, Messrs. Charles Scribner’s Sons; Professors Joseph H. Beale and Bruce Wyman (as joint authors); Mr. Frederick H. Clark, Head of History Department, Lowell High School, San Francisco; Mr. George Iles, author of "Inventors at Work", Dr. James Brown Scott, Solicitor of the U. S. Department of State.

I am much indebted, furthermore, to the courtesy of many societies and persons from whom I have received reports and other documents that were essential to my work; and especially do I owe much to the helpfulness of many on the staff of the Buffalo Public Library.

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HISTORY FOR READY REFERENCE

ABD EL AZIZ, Sultan of Morocco.

See (in this Volume) MOROCCO: A. D. 1903, and 1907-1909.

ABDUL HAMID II., Sultan of Turkey. His forced restoration of the Constitution of 1876 . His faithlessness to it. His deposition.

See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1908 (July-December.), and 1909 (January-May).

ABDULLA MOHAMMED, The Mullah.

See (in this Volume) Africa: Somaliland.

ABDURAHMAN, Ameer of Afghanistan: Death, 1901.

See (in this Volume) AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1901-1904.

ABERDEEN, The Earl of: Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

See (in this Volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1905-1906.

ABERDEEN, Lady.

See (in this Volume) WOMEN, INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF.

"ABIR," or A. B. I. R. COMPANY, The.

See (in this Volume) CONGO STATE: A. D. 1903-1905.

ABYSSINIA: A. D. 1902 . The French in favor. Their railway building and plans.

"Through Abyssinia the French hope to establish a line of trade across Africa from east to west in opposition to our Cape to Cairo railway from north to south. In this they have already achieved some success. They have settled themselves along the Gulf of Tadjoura, on the south of which they hold the magnificent Bay of Djibouti, while on the north their flag waves over the small port of Obok. But their real triumph in these regions has been the establishment of a lasting friendship with Abyssinia by judicious consignments of arms and ammunition—which were used against Italy in the war of 1896. Finally, they are now in the act of building a French railway from Djibouti to Addis Abeba, the capital of Abyssinia. This railway will completely cut out the British port of Zeila, for in the concession granted by Menelik it is stipulated that no company is to be permitted to construct a railroad on Abyssinian territory that shall enter into competition with that of M. Ilg and M. Chefneux. …

"At Menelik’s capital, Addis Abeba, there is, to use the expression of M. Hugues le Roux, a silent duel in progress between the representatives of the various nationalities. We are represented by Colonel Harrington. But, although Menelik is wise enough to extend a friendly greeting to all, there is no reason to suppose that we should enjoy as great a share of favour as other nations. Although throughout the war we preserved a strict neutrality, we are regarded as a powerful and aggressive neighbour, and as the ally of Italy, whereas the French have been the truest friends of Abyssinia. The Russians are also in communication with the Negus, and their efforts are, of course, seconded by France. As for the Italians, their position seems now to be as good as that of any European nation."

_G. F. H. Berkeley, The Abyssinian Question and its History (Nineteenth Century, January, 1903)._

ABYSSINIA: A. D. 1902. Treaty with Great Britain.

A treaty between Great Britain and the Emperor Menelek, of the kingdom of Ethiopia (Abyssinia), signed on the 15th of May, 1902, defines the boundaries between the Soudan and Ethiopia, and contains the following important provisions:

"Article III. His Majesty the Emperor Menelek II., King of Kings of Ethiopia, engages himself towards the Government of his Britannic Majesty not to construct, or allow to be constructed, any work across the Blue Nile, Lake Tsana, or the Sobat, which would arrest the flow of their waters into the Nile, except in agreement with his Britannic Majesty’s Government and the Government of the Soudan.

Article IV. The Emperor Menelek engages himself to allow his Britannic Majesty’s Government and the Government of the Soudan to select in the neighborhood of Itang, on the Baro River, a block of territory having a river frontage of not more than 2000 metres, in area not exceeding 400 hectares, which shall be leased to the Government of the Soudan, to be administered and occupied as a commercial station, so long as the Soudan is under the Anglo-Egyptian Government. It is agreed between the two high contracting parties that the territory so leased shall not be used for any political or military purpose.

Article V. The Emperor Menelek grants his Britannic Majesty’s Government and the Government of the Soudan the right to construct a railway through Abyssinian territory to connect the Soudan with Uganda. A route for the railway will be selected by mutual agreement between the two high contracting parties."

ACCIDENTS TO WORKMEN: In the United States.

See (in this Volume) LABOR PROTECTION.

ACHINESE, Dutch hostilities with the.

See (in this Volume) NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1904.

ACRE DISPUTES, The: Claims on the region by Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. Its final partition.

A considerable territory of much richness in the southwestern part of the Amazon Valley, around the upper waters of the Madeira, the Aquiry, and the Purus tributaries, was long in dispute between Brazil, Bolivia, and Peru, and became a cause of serious quarrel between the two first named in 1903. The then Brazilian President, Rodriguez Alves, in his first annual message, May, 1903, stated the situation from the Brazilian standpoint as follows:

"Our former relations of such cordial friendship with Bolivia have suffered a not insignificant strain since the time when the Government of that sister Republic, unable to maintain its authority in the Acre region, inhabited exclusively, as you know, by Brazilians who, many years previously, had established themselves there in good faith, saw fit to deliver it over to a foreign syndicate upon whom it conferred powers almost sovereign. That concession, as dangerous for the neighboring nations as for Bolivia itself, encountered general disapproval in South America As the most immediately interested, Brazil, already in the time of my illustrious predecessor, protested against the contract to which I refer, and entered upon the policy of reprisals, prohibiting the free transit by the Amazon of merchandise between Bolivia and abroad. {2} Neither that protest nor the counsels of friendship produced at that time the desired effect in La Paz, and, far from rescinding the contract or making the hoped-for modifications therein, the Bolivian Government concluded an especial arrangement for the purpose of hurrying the entrance of the syndicate into the possession of the territory.

"When I assumed the government that was the situation, and in addition the inhabitants of the Acre, who had again proclaimed their independence, were masters of the whole country, excepting Puerto Acre, of which they did not get possession until the end of January. Although since January negotiations have been initiated by us for the purpose of removing amicably the cause of the disorders and complications which have had their seat of action in the Acre ever since the time when for the first time the Bolivian authorities penetrated thither, in 1899, yet the Government of La Paz has nevertheless thought proper that its President and his minister of war should march against that territory at the head of armed forces with the end in view of crushing its inhabitants and then establishing the agents of the syndicate."

The Brazilian President proceeded then to relate that he had notified the Bolivian Government of the intention of Brazil to "defend as its boundary the parallel of 10° 20' south," which it held to be the line indicated by the letter and the spirit of a treaty concluded in 1867; and that Bolivia had then agreed to a settlement of the dispute through diplomatic channels. "Upon the Bolivian Government agreeing to this," he continued, "we promptly reestablished freedom of transit for its foreign commerce by Brazilian waters. Shortly after this the syndicate, by reason of the indemnity which we paid it, renounced the concession which had been made it, eliminating thus this disturbing element."

In conclusion of the subject, President Alves reported: "To the Peruvian Government we have announced, very willingly, since January, that we will examine, with attention, the claims which in due time they may be pleased to make upon the subject of the territories now in dispute between Brazil and Bolivia."

The result of the ensuing negotiations between Brazil and Bolivia was a treaty signed in the following November and duly ratified, the terms of which were summarized as follows in a despatch from the American Legation at La Paz, December 26: "Three months after exchange of ratifications Brazil is to pay an indemnity of £1,000,000 and in March, 1905, £1,000,000. A small strip of territory, north Marso, Brazilero, embracing Bahia Negra and a port opposite Coimbra, on Paraguay River, are conceded, and all responsibilities respecting Peruvian contentions are assumed. The disputed Acre territory is conceded by Bolivia. A railroad for the common use of both countries is to be built from San Antonio, on Madeira River, to Cuajar Ameren, on Mamore River, within four years after ratification. Free navigation on the Amazon and its Bolivian affluents is conceded. A mixed commission, with umpire chosen from the diplomatic representation to Brazil, will treat all individual Acre claims."

Subsequently it was determined in Bolivia that the entire indemnity received from Brazil should be expended on railroads, with an additional sum of £3,500,000, to be raised by loan.

For the settlement of the remaining question of rights in the Acre territory, between Bolivia and Peru, a treaty of arbitration, negotiated in December, 1902, but ratified with modifications by the Bolivian Congress in October, 1903, provided that "the high contracting parties submit to the judgment and decision of the Government of the Argentine Republic, as arbitrator and judge of rights, the question of limits now pending between both republics, so as to obtain a definite and unappealable sentence, in virtue of which all the territory which in 1810 belonged to the jurisdiction or district of the Ancient Audience of Charcas, within the limits of the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres, by acts of the ancient sovereign, may belong to the Republic of Bolivia; and all the territory which at the same date and by acts of equal origin belonged to the viceroyalty of Peru may belong to the Republic of Peru."

The case was pending until July, 1909, when judgment favorable to the claims of Peru was pronounced by the President of the Argentine Republic, Señor Figueroa Alcorta. According to the award, as announced officially from Peru, the line was drawn to "follow the rivers Heath and Madre de Dios up to the mouth of the Toromonas and from there a straight line as far as the intersection of the river Tehuamanu with meridian 69. It will then run northwards along this meridian until it meets the territorial sovereignty of another nation."

The Bolivians were enraged by the decision against them, and riotous attacks were made on the Argentine Legation at La Paz, the Bolivian capital, and on Argentine consulates elsewhere. Worse than this in offensiveness was a published declaration by President Montes of Bolivia that the arbitration award respecting the frontiers of Bolivia and Peru had been given by Argentina without regard to Bolivia’s petition that an actual inspection of the territory should be made in case the documents and titles submitted were unsatisfactory. "Had this been done," said the President of Bolivia, "the arbitrator would have been convinced of the respective possessions of the two countries. It is inexplicable how the arbitrator, after examining the titles and documents, could give such a decision. He passed over the elementary principles of international rights in awarding to Peru territory which had never been questioned as belonging to Bolivia. As a consequence Bolivia rejects the award."

The insulted Government of Argentina demanded explanations; diplomatic relations between the two countries were broken off, and war seemed imminent. Fortunately the term of President Montes was near its close, and a man of evidently cooler temper, Elidoro Villazon, succeeded him in the Presidency on August 12th. The new President, in his message to Congress next day, while characterizing the award as unjust, said: "We must proceed circumspectly, and be guided by international rights and the customs of civilized nations in similar cases. I consider it right to avail ourselves of the means offered by diplomacy to obtain a rectification of the new frontier line given by arbitration, thus saving the compromised possessions of Bolivia."

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With this better spirit entering into the controversy, Bolivia was soon able to arrange with Peru for a concession from the latter which made her people willing to recognize the award. This agreement was effected on the 11th of September, and its terms, as made known in a despatch from Rio de Janeiro, were as follows:

"Peru surrenders to Bolivia a very small extent of territory lying between the Madre de Dios River and the Acre, traversed by the rivers Tahuamano and Buyamaro, which together form the river Orton, an affluent of the Beni River. This territory, with an area of about 6,500 square kilometres, was discovered and colonized by Bolivians, who to-day are in possession of numerous prosperous industries there. Peru gets possession of all the upper course of the Madre de Dios, from its head waters to its confluence with the river Heath. Such a slight modification as the foregoing from the decision reached by the arbitrator in no way disturbs the Argentine Republic."

As between Peru and Brazil the boundary question was settled by a treaty signed at Rio de Janeiro on the 8th of September, three days before the Bolivian pacification.

This probably closes a territorial dispute which has troubled four countries in South America for many years, and brought quarrelling couples to the verge of war a number of times.

ADANA, Massacres at.

See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (January-May), and (April-December).

ADDIS ABEBA, Capital of Abyssinia.

See (in this Volume) ABYSSINIA: A. D. 1902.

ADULTERATIONS, Laws against.

See (in this Volume) PUBLIC HEALTH: PURE FOOD LAWS.

AEHRENTHAL, Baron.

See (in this Volume) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1905-1906.

AERONAUTICS.

See (in this Volume) SCIENCE AND INVENTION, RECENT.

AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1901-1906. Death of Abdurahman. Succession of his son, Habibullah. Signs of a progressive spirit in the new Ameer.

The late Ameer, Abdurahman, died in October, 1901, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Habibullah. Early in the third year of his reign the new Ameer began to show signs of a wish to have his country move a little on the lines of European progress, in the march which so many of his Asiatic neighbors were joining. His undertakings were disturbed for a time by trouble with his half-brother, Omar Jan, and with the latter’s mother, the Bibi Halima or Queen of the Harem; but he brought the trouble to an end which does not seem to have been tragical, and that, in itself, is a notable mark in his favor. The Russo-Japanese War interested him immensely, and he established a daily post between Khyber and Cabul to bring speedy news of events. He then read the reports in public, with expositions, to make the listening people understand the bearing of what was happening on their own interests, and the lessons they should learn from what the Japanese were doing. He is said to have done much in the way of improving agriculture and horse-breeding in Afghanistan; he has a desire to establish a Chiefs’ College, with the English language as the basis of instruction, but has met with strong opposition in this undertaking; and he has introduced electric lighting, with probably other luxuries of modern science, in Cabul. Such things in Afghanistan mark a highly progressive man. His political intelligence is proved by the cordiality of his relations with the British Indian Government. An interesting account of conditions in the Ameer’s country in 1904 was given by Mr. D. C. Boulger, in the Fortnightly Review of December, that year, under the title of "The Awakening of Afghanistan."

AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1905. The Ameer becomes King.

In a new treaty between the Government of Great Britain and the Ameer of Afghanistan, the latter was recognized as King.

AFGHANISTAN: A. D. 1907. Convention between Great Britain and Russia relative to Afghanistan.

See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1907 (AUGUST).

AFRICA: Its Colonizability by white peoples. The regions habitable by Europeans.

"There are three obstacles to the white race from Europe overrunning and colonising the continent of Africa as it has overrun and colonised the two Americas and Australasia. The first is the insalubrity of the well-watered regions and the uninhabitability of the desert tracts; the second is the opposition of strong indigenous races; and the third, of quite recent growth, is a growing sentiment which is increasingly influencing public opinion, in Europe more especially, and which forbids the white man to do evil that good may come: namely, to displace by force of arms pre-existing races in order that, the white man may take the land they occupy for his own use. It is probable that the second and third reasons combined may in future prove the more effective checks. Deserts, to be made habitable and cultivable, only need irrigation, and apparently there is a subterranean water supply underlying most African deserts which can be tapped by artesian wells. The extreme unhealthiness of the well-watered parts of Africa is due not so much to climate as to the presence of malaria in the systems of the Negro inhabitants. This malaria is conveyed from the black man to the white man by certain gnats of the genus _Anopheles_—possibly by other agencies. But the draining of marshes and the sterilisation of pools, together with other measures, may gradually bring about the extinction of the mosquito; while, on the other hand, it seems as though the drug (_Cassia Beareana_) obtained from the roots of a cassia bush may act as a complete cure for malarial fever. …

"For practical purposes the only areas south of the Sahara Desert which at the present time are favourable to white colonisation are the following. In West Africa there can be no white colonisation under existing conditions; the white man can only remain there for a portion of his working life as an educator and administrator. … In North-East Africa, Abyssinia and Eritrea will suggest themselves as white man’s countries—presenting, that is to say, some of the conditions favourable to European colonisation. The actual coast of Eritrea is extremely hot, almost the hottest country in the world, but it is not necessarily very unhealthy. The heat, however, apart from the existence of a fairly abundant native population, almost precludes the idea of a European settlement. But on the mountains of the hinterland which are still within Italian territory there are said to be a few small areas suited at any rate to settlement by Italians, who, by-the-by, seem to be getting on very well with the natives in that part of Africa. But a European colonisation of Abyssinia, possible as it might be climatically, is out of the question in view of the relatively abundant and warlike population indigenous to the Ethiopian Empire. …

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"Then comes Central Africa, which may be taken to range from the northern limits of the Congo basin and the Great Lakes on the north to the Cunenc River and the Zambesi on the south. British East Africa and Uganda offer probably the largest continuous area of white man’s country in the central section of the continent. The Ankole country in the southwest of the Uganda Protectorate and the highlands north of Tanganyika, together with the slopes of the Ruwenzori range, offer small tracts of land thoroughly suited to occupation by a white race so far as climate and fertility are concerned; but these countries have already been occupied, to a great extent, by some of the earliest forerunners of the Caucasian (the Bahima), as well as by sturdy Negro tribes who have become inured to the cold. To the northeast of the Victoria Nyanza, however, there is an area which has as its outposts the southwest coast of Lake Rudolf, the great mountains of Debasien and Elgon, and the snow-clad extinct volcanoes of Kenia and Kilimanjaro. This land of plateaux and rift valleys is not far short of 70,000 square miles in extent, and so far as climate and other physical conditions are concerned is as well suited for occupation by British settlers as Queensland or New South Wales. But nearly 50,000 square miles of this East African territory is more or less in the occupation of sturdy Negro or Negroid races whom it would be neither just nor easy to expel. …

"The only portion of German East Africa which is at all suited to European settlement lies along the edge of the Nyasa-Tanganyika Plateau. Here is a district of a little more than a thousand square miles which is not only elevated and healthy, but very sparsely populated by Negroes. A few patches in the Katanga district and the extreme southern part of the Congo Free State offer similar conditions.

"In British Central Africa we have perhaps 6,000 square miles of elevated, sparsely populated, fertile country to the northwest of Lake Nyasa and along the road to Tanganyika. There is also land of this description in the North-East Rhodesian province of British Central Africa, in Manikaland, and along the water-parting between the Congo and the Zambesi systems. Then in the southernmost prolongation of British Central Africa are the celebrated Shire Highlands, which, together with a few outlying mountain districts to the southwest of Lake Nyasa, may offer a total area of about 5,000 square miles suitable to European colonisation. A small portion of the Mozambique province, in the interior of the Angoche coast, might answer to the same description. Then again, far away to the west, under the same latitudes, we have, at the back of Mossamedes and Benguela, other patches of white man’s country in the mountains of Bailundo and Shclla.

"In South Africa, beyond the latitudes of the Zambesi, we come to lands which are increasingly suited to the white man’s occupation the further we proceed south. Nearly all German South-West Africa is arid desert, but inland there are plateaux and mountains which sometimes exceed 8,000 feet in altitude, and which have a sufficient rainfall to make European agriculture possible. … About two-thirds of the Transvaal, a third of Rhodesia, a small portion of southern Bechuanaland, two-thirds of the Orange River Colony, four-fifths of Cape Colony, and a third of Natal sum up the areas attributed to the white man in South Africa. The remainder of this part of the continent must be considered mainly as a reserve for the black man, and to a much smaller degree (in South-East Africa) as a field for Asiatic colonisation, preferentially on the part of British Indians.

"Counting the white-skinned Berbers and Arabs of North Africa, and the more or less pure-blooded, light-skinned Egyptians, as white men, and the land they occupy as part of the white man’s share of the Dark Continent, we may then by a rough calculation arrive (by adding to white North Africa the other areas enumerated in the rest of the continent) at the fol- lowing estimate: that about 970,000 square miles of the whole African continent may be attributed to the white man as his legitimate share. If, however, we are merely to consider the territory that lies open to European colonisation, then we must considerably reduce our North African estimate."

_H. H. Johnston, The White Man's Place in Africa (Nineteenth Century, June, 1904)._

AFRICA: Agreements between England and France concerning Egypt, Morocco, Senegambia, and Madagascar.

See (in this Volume) EUROPE: A. D. 1904 (APRIL).

AFRICA: British, German, and Congo frontier agreement.

The following was telegraphed to the Press from Berlin, November 29, 1909:

"An agreement was signed in Berlin during the summer, Reuter’s representative learns, whereby various questions affecting the frontier lines between British Uganda and German East Africa and the Congo, which have been under discussion for years, were definitely settled. The agreement is understood to be satisfactory to both parties, but the details are not to be published as yet."

AFRICA: French Central: A Land-locked Empire.

"Since 1898, successive expeditions have converged from the French Niger Territories, from South Algeria, and from the French Congo towards Lake Tchad, which has ever exercised a mystic charm over the minds of explorers. Rabah, the usurper of Bornou, has been killed, and his son Fadel’allah recently met the same fate, so that all the belt of black countries stretching from the north of Sokoto, the north of Bornon and Baghirmi to the confines of Wadaï, the most easterly limit of the French sphere, are now occupied in a military sense. … Even if we consider the French as now firmly settled in these countries, peopled with timid blacks from whom little is to be feared, the succeeding problem, what to do with them, presents no seductive outlook.

"The key to the situation is the question of transport, for here we have a vast land-locked empire, the roads to which are long, complicated, and difficult. For the present the question of a great Trans-Saharan railway may be left out of account, and in all probability more mature consideration will convince the French of the futility of such a scheme. Three roads running through French territory are available; from the east by the Niger, from the south by the French Congo, and from the north, Tunis or Algeria, across the great Sahara. {5} Of the three, the only one which can be made of practical utility for a long time to come is that across the Sahara. From the centre of Africa there are several well-known caravan routes, all capable of being commercially used, provided the intervening tribes can be brought to acquiesce in the French domination. All these terminate in Turkish territory."

_E. J. Wardle, The French in Central Africa (Contemporary Review, October, 1902)._

AFRICA: Subjugation of Hausa Land and occupation of Sokoto.

Early in 1903 the High Commissioner of Nigeria, Sir F. Lugard, sent an expedition against the Emir of Kano, in the northern part of the Nigerian Protectorate, within the Sultanate of Sokoto, which had never been made submissive to the rule which Great Britain claimed. Kano was reached and taken by assault on the 3d of February, the Emir and his horsemen escaping toward Sokoto. The expedition then proceeded against Sokoto, where feeble resistance was offered, and the seat of the Sultanate was taken on the 15th of March. These conquests are believed to have effected a firm establishment of British ascendancy throughout the Niger territory, from the coast to the Saharan sphere of the French. The possession of Kano is important, as it is the starting point of caravan routes eastward and northward and the chief commercial town of the Western Sudan.

AFRICA: Rapid development of the railway system.

See (in this Volume) Railways: Nigeria.

AFRICA: French Mauretanie.

See Morocco: A. D.1909.

AFRICA: French Western: Eradication of Yellow Fever.

See PUBLIC HEALTH: A. D. 1901-1905.

AFRICA: German Colonies: Cost to Germany. Small number of German Colonists.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1903.

AFRICA: Unpopularity of the Colonial Policy in Germany.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1906-1907.

AFRICA: Wars with the Natives.

In the German Parliament, on the 12th of January, 1905, it was stated by the Director of the Colonial Department, Dr. Stübel, that up to that date 11,000 German troops had been employed against the Hereros and Witbois in Southwest Africa, and that the campaign of 1904 had cost 42,000,000 marks (about $10,500,000). The military estimate for 1905 was 60,000,000 marks. General von Trotha, Governor of the colony, who had been in command of operations, and who had set a price on the heads of Morenga and other insurgent chiefs, and had threatened the whole tribe with extermination, was to be superseded; but the Emperor, notwithstanding, conferred on him the Order "Pour le Merite." A similar conflict with the natives in German East Africa was opened in August, 1905, by the murder of Bishop Spiers and four missionaries and Sisters of Mercy. The Wangonis are of the Zulu race, mustering about 30,000 warriors, and reinforcements of the German troops had to be sent out.

AFRICA: Opening of Diamond Fields.

Diamond discoveries in German Southwest Africa began to acquire importance in 1908. As stated in a lecture on the subject by Herr Dernburg, the German Colonial Secretary, at Berlin, in January, 1909, these diamond deposits lie in crescent form around Lüderitz Bay, beginning to the south of Elizabeth Bay and extending northwards to the sea-coast in the vicinity of Anischab. The full extent of the stretch of diamond-bearing sand can only be ascertained by careful measurement, but it is even now permissible to describe the deposits as very considerable. The diamonds, which are found mixed with small agates and other half-precious stones, vary from one-fifth to three-quarters of a carat—the average not exceeding one-third of a carat. They are almost perfect octahedrons of good water. The regular exploitation may be said to have begun in September, 1908, the total recovered before that date only amounting to 2,720 carats. In September the amount was 6,644 carats, in October 8,621, in November 10,228, and in December 11,549, or in all 39,762, the price of which would be about £55,000. The administrative regulations introduced stipulate, first, that half the net profit shall go to the Southwest African Treasury; secondly, that measures shall be taken to secure an adequate market for the new supply and to prevent depreciation; thirdly, that suitable conditions shall be established for the working of the mines; and, fourthly, that their exploitation shall be mainly reserved for German capital, and that increased work shall be provided for the German diamond-cutting industry.

AFRICA: Portuguese: A. D. 1905-1908. Continued existence of slavery.

General F. Joubert-Pienaar, one of the prominent Boer leaders in the Boer-British War, is the authority for startling statements concerning the continued maintenance of slavery in Portuguese Africa. He attempted to become a settler in that region, and related subsequently what he saw and heard during his stay in it. Of an experience at the Island Principe he said: "The English director of the cable office took me to some of the cocoa plantations, with which the slopes of the hills are covered. He told me that it was a terribly unhealthy place to live, and that Europeans could not exist there for more than a couple of months at a time, and that frequent changes have to be made, therefore, in the telegraph department. He told me, further, that the year before the whole original population of the island had died from malarial fever, and that the following year they imported five hundred slaves, men and women, to repopulate the island. That was ten months before my visit. Pointing to five women walking on the street, he said: 'There are all that are left of the women imported, and only about a dozen men remain.' I asked him how they carried on the work of the plantations. He said it was done by simply importing slaves, from time to time, to replace those who had died."

General Joubert-Pienaar declares that he never heard of a single case where one of these slaves had returned to his own country, while in the coast towns the abnormal proportion of native women and children noticeable is due to the fact that the men have been sent as slaves to the islands. The method of obtaining the slaves and of making the pretense of a contract with them is thus described: "When any slaves are wanted in the islands, the plantation owner informs the slave-traders on the mainland. The slave-trader goes to a strong chief, inland, and bargains with him for the number of slaves he requires, generally paying him in rifles and ammunition. {6} This chief will not send any of his own men to the islands, but, calling his braves, he goes to some weaker tribe, attacks it, and annihilates the tribe, taking the men, women, children, and cattle captive. The men, and as many women as are necessary, he hands over to the slave-trader, the rest of the women and the cattle he keeps for himself and his people, and the children he sells to colonists for slaves. On these slave-hunting expeditions the most terrible cruelties are enacted and the most gruesome atrocities perpetrated. … Arriving at the coast, these men—and sometimes women when they are required—are brought before an officer appointed for the purpose. He reads the contract to them in Portuguese; and after the contract has been read to these people, who do not understand one word of the language, a black man, who is stationed there for the purpose, shouts to these slaves to say ‘Yes!’ Of course they all repeat the ‘Yes’ after him, and the Portuguese official then certifies that these men have all agreed to go and work on the islands under the terms of the contract read to them. He then takes a little tin box, in which a copy of the contract is placed, and ties it around the neck of each of the slaves."

AFRICA: Somaliland: Troubles with the Mullah.

In 1902 the British in their Somali Coast Protectorate began to be harassed by raids from the bordering desert region led by a religious agitator who had assumed the character known as that of a Mullah. Three years previously the British Consul at Berbera had reported to London the appearance of this personage, Muhammad Abdullah by name, in the Dolbahanta country, and that he was said to be "collecting arms and men with a view to establishing his authority over the southeastern portion of the Protectorate." He had made several pilgrimages to Mecca, and had attached himself there to a sect which "preaches more regularity in the hours of prayer" and "stricter attention to the forms of religion." He had begun the use of force to compel the tribes of his region to join his sect, and was evidently gaining power to make trouble. The trouble was realized in due time, and became serious in 1902, when, in October, Colonel Swayne, with a native levy of troops, having driven the Mullah’s raiders back into the desert, followed them thither, and suffered a serious reverse. He was attacked and compelled to retreat, with a loss of two officers and 70 men killed and two officers, with about 100 men wounded. Troops were then sent to the Protectorate from India and careful preparations were made for dealing with the Mullah in a more effectual way. He, meantime, sent demands for political recognition and for the cession to him of a port.

Early in 1903 operations against the Mullah were renewed, with strongly increased forces from India and from African native levies; but the results were again disastrous. A detachment from a column which pursued the Mullah into his own region ventured too far in the advance and was overwhelmed, losing nearly 200 officers and men. There appears to have been no success during the year to counterbalance this reverse.

AFRICA: Peace with the Mullah.

The Mullah was brought at last to an agreement with Great Britain and Italy which established comparative peace for the time being in Somaliland, with the promise of freedom in trade.

Notwithstanding the pacific agreement with the Mullah, effected in 1905, troubles on the Somali border have continued, because of his attacks on friendly tribes. Early in 1909 it was announced that the British forces in Somaliland were to be increased, but that there was no intention to embark on any expedition against the Mullah. A despatch from Bombay, India, on the 3d of January, said: "Further operations against the Somaliland Mullah are strongly deprecated. It is impossible to conduct a successful campaign, owing to the difficulty of obtaining supplies, unless a light railway 200 miles long is built to Bohotle. The Mullah, who is an able man, is not believed to be anxious to engage in fresh hostilities with the British, but he is determined to dominate the Hinterland. Experts consider that no new movement on the lines of the last campaign would produce a satisfactory result. The Mullah’s strength is unknown, but it is probably great, as his camp sometimes covers ten square miles. His mobility is astonishing, and he can always elude our troops. Our present advanced outpost is Burao, 80 miles from Berbera, where there is a small force of the King’s African Rifles. The country is practically worthless, and the best course, probably, is to hold the coast and to leave the far interior severely alone. The friendly tribes cannot be further effectively protected without permanently employing a large force. Minor operations are now merely a waste of money."

AFRICA: Sudan: Suppression of a new Mahdi.

A new Mahdi proclaimed himself in Southern Kordofan in November, 1903. He was a native of Tunis, named Mahomed El Amin, who had twice made the pilgrimage to Mecca. Colonel Mahon, the Deputy-Governor of the Sudan, on hearing of Mahomed’s proclamation, started instantly from Khartoum, with 200 cavalry, sending orders to El Obeid for 200 infantry, with Maxims, to meet him near Tagalla. With this force, after a five days march, through the desert toward the Tagalla mountains, he caught the Mahdi, took him to El Obeid and tried and hanged him straightway.

AFRICA: Population.

Lord Cromer, in his annual report, 1904, estimated the population of the Sudan, within the British-Egyptian Condominium, at no more than 1,870,000, to which number it had been reduced by war and disease from former estimates of 8,525,000, prior to the Mahdi domination.

See, also, ALGIERS, CONGO, EGYPT, MOROCCO, RHODESIA, SOUTH AFRICA, etc.

AGLIPAY, Padre Gregorio: His secession from the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines.

See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1902.

AGRAM TRIALS, The.

See (in this Volume) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1908-1909.

AGRARIAN INTEREST, in Germany: Its triumph in 1909.

See (in this Volume) GERMANY: A. D. 1908-1909.

AGRARIAN LAW, The Russian.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1909 (APRIL).

AGRICULTURAL CRISIS IN RUSSIA.

See (in this Volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1905.

AGRICULTURE: Coöperative and other unions among farmers.

See (in this Volume) LABOR ORGANIZATION: UNITED STATES: A. D. 1902-1909; AND LABOR REMUNERATION: COÖPERATIVE ORGANIZATION.

AGRICULTURE: Dry Farming.

See (in this Volume) SCIENCE AND INVENTION: AGRICULTURE.

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AGRICULTURE: Germany: Decrease of agricultural population.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1907.

AGRICULTURE: Increasing cooperative organization in Great Britain.

See LABOR REMUNERATION: COÖPERATIVE ORGANIZATION.

AGRICULTURE: International Institute: Its origin and purpose. Created under the auspices of the King of Italy. Forty nations associated in its membership. Its seat near Rome.

The idea of an international organization for systematizing the agricultural production of the world and regulating the markets of food products, by constant and authentic knowledge of crops and conditions, was conceived some years ago by Mr. David Lubin, of California. It was first expressed by him publicly at Budapest in 1896, but was the growth of thirteen years of thought preceding that date. As the result of Mr. Lubin’s efforts to interest governments and peoples in the project, King Victor Emmanuel III., of Italy, became its hearty patron in 1903, and took the initiative step toward effecting an organization as wide as the civilized world, by inviting all nations to take part in a convention of delegates for the purpose, at Rome, in May, 1905. The invitation, as addressed to the Government of the United States by the Italian Ambassador at Washington, on the 26th of February, 1905, was in these words: "By order of my government, I have the honor to inform your excellency that His Majesty the King, my august sovereign, has taken the initiative in the formation of an international institute of agriculture to be composed of representatives of the great agricultural societies of the various countries and of delegates from the several governments. This institute, being devoid of any political intent, should tend to bring about a community of interests among agriculturists and to protect these interests in the markets of the world. It will study agricultural conditions in the different countries, periodically indicating the supply and the quality of products with accuracy and care, so as to proportion production to demand, increase and distribute the various crops according to the rate of consumption, render the commerce of agricultural products less costly and more expeditious, and suitably determine the prices thereof. Acting in unison with the various national bureaus already existing, it will furnish accurate information on conditions regarding agricultural labor in various localities, and will regulate and direct the currents of emigration. It will favor the institution of agricultural exchanges and labor bureaus. It will protect both producers and consumers against the excesses of transportation and forestalling syndicates, keeping a watch on middlemen, pointing out their abuses, and acquainting the public with the true conditions of the market. It will foster agreements for common defense against the diseases of plants and live stock, against which individual defense is less effectual. It will help to develop rural cooperation, agricultural insurance, and agrarian credit. It will study and propose measures of general interest, preparing international agreements for the benefit of agriculture and the agricultural classes.

"Carrying out the intention of His Majesty, the Italian Government appeals to all friendly nations, each of which ought to have its own representatives in the institute, appointed to act as the exponents of their respective governments, as organs of mutual relations, and as mediums of reciprocal influence and information. It accordingly now invites them to participate through their delegates in the first convention, which is to be held at Rome next May for the purpose of preparing rules for the new institute.

"The King’s Government trusts that the United States will be willing to cooperate in the enterprise, the first inspiration of which is due to an American citizen, and that, accepting the invitation to the conference at Rome, it will send thither a delegation commensurate with its importance as the foremost agricultural nation in the world."

Gratifying responses to the invitation were made by most, if not all, of the governments addressed, and the Conference at Rome was held at the appointed time. It concluded its sessions on the 7th of June by attaching the signatures of the delegates of the Powers represented to a final Act, which embodies the resolutions on which they had agreed. This Act of organization was as follows:

"Article 1. There is hereby created a permanent international institute of agriculture, having its seat at Rome.

"Article 2. The international institute of agriculture is to be a government institution, in which each adhering power shall be represented by delegates of its choice. The institute shall be composed of a general assembly and a permanent committee, the composition and duties of which are defined in the ensuing articles.

"Article 3. The general assembly of the institute shall be composed of the representatives of the adhering governments. Each nation, whatever be the number of its delegates, shall be entitled to a number of votes in the assembly which shall be determined according to the group to which it belongs, and to which reference will be made in article 10.

"Article 4. The general assembly shall elect for each session from among its members a president and two vice-presidents. The sessions shall take place on dates fixed by the last general assembly and according to a programme proposed by the permanent committee and adopted by the adhering governments.

"Article 5. The general assembly shall exercise supreme control over the international institute of agriculture. It shall approve the projects prepared by the permanent committee regarding the organization and internal workings of the institute. It shall fix the total amount of expenditures and audit and approve the accounts. It shall submit to the approval of the adhering governments modifications of any nature involving an increase in expenditure or an enlargement of the functions of the institute. It shall set the date for holding the sessions. It shall prepare its regulations. The presence at the general assemblies of delegates representing two-thirds of the adhering nations shall be required in order to render the deliberations valid.

"Article 6. The executive power of the institute is intrusted to the permanent committee, which, under the direction and control of the general assembly, shall carry out the decisions of the latter and prepare propositions to submit to it.

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"Article 7. The permanent committee shall be composed of members designated by the respective governments. Each adhering nation shall be represented in the permanent committee by one member. However, the representation of one nation may be intrusted to a delegate of another adhering nation, provided that the actual number of members shall not be less than fifteen. The conditions of voting in the permanent committee shall be the same as those indicated in article 3 for the general assemblies.

"Article 8. The permanent committee shall elect from among its members for a period of three years a president and a vice-president, who may be reelected. It shall prepare its internal regulations, vote the budget of the institute within the limits of the funds placed at its disposal by the general assembly, and appoint and remove the officials and employees of its office. The general secretary of the permanent committee shall act as secretary' of the assembly.

"Article 9. The institute, confining its operations within an international sphere, shall—

(a) Collect, study, and publish as promptly as possible statistical, technical, or economic information concerning farming, both vegetable and animal products, the commerce in agricultural products, and the prices prevailing in the various markets:

(b) Communicate to parties interested, also as promptly as possible, all the information just referred to;

(c) Indicate the wages paid for farm work;

(d) Make known the new diseases of vegetables which may appear in any part of the world, showing the territories infected, the progress of the disease, and, if possible, the remedies which are effective in combating them;

(e) Study questions concerning agricultural coöperation, insurance, and credit in all their aspects; collect and publish information which might be useful in the various countries in the organization of works connected with agricultural coöperation, insurance, and credit;

(f) Submit to the approval of the governments, if there is occasion for it, measures for the protection of the common interests of farmers and for the improvement of their condition, after having utilized all the necessary sources of information, such as the wishes expressed by international or other agricultural congresses or congresses of sciences applied to agriculture, agricultural societies, academies, learned bodies, etc.

All questions concerning the economic interests, the legislation, and the administration of a particular nation shall be excluded from the consideration of the institute.

"Article 10. The nations adhering to the institute shall be classed in five groups, according to the place which each of them thinks it ought to occupy. The number of votes which each nation shall have and the number of units of assessment shall be established according to the following gradations:

Groups of nations. Numbers of votes Units of assessment.

I 5 16 II 4 8 III 3 4 IV 2 2 V 1 1

In any event the contribution due per unit of assessment shall never exceed a maximum of 2,500 francs. As a temporary provision the assessment for the first two years shall not exceed 1,500 francs per unit. Colonies may, at the request of the nations to which they belong, be admitted to form part of the institute on the same conditions as the independent nations.

"Article 11. The present convention shall be ratified and the ratifications shall be exchanged as soon as possible by depositing them with the Italian Government."

In communicating this Act of the Conference to the Government of the United States, the Italian Ambassador at Washington wrote August 9, 1905: "The final act of the conference was signed by the delegates under reservation of the approval of their respective governments, nor could it be otherwise. After this approval the convention, which constitutes the essential part of the act, shall, if approved (as the King’s Government does not doubt it will be), assume the character of an obligation on the part of the nations which shall have adhered to it through the signature of plenipotentiaries appointed for the purpose."

On March 27, 1906, he was able to announce that "the States which were represented at the Conference of last year at Rome … have now all sanctioned by the signature of their plenipotentiaries the Convention drafted at that Conference." As appears from a copy transmitted, the Convention had been signed by the plenipotentiaries of forty nations, including twelve American republics besides the United States. To this gratifying announcement the Ambassador from Italy added the following:

"His Majesty the King at the council of January 28 last signed a decree, a few copies of which I have the honor to inclose, by which a royal commission is established, and whose precise duty is to carry into effect, as soon as it becomes operative, the convention which will soon be referred to the several contracting governments for ratification."

At the second general meeting of the Institute at Rome, December 12, 1909, more than 100 foreign delegates were present.

"His Majesty the King, desiring again to prove how much he has at heart the contemplated international institute, has ordered that the net income of the royal domains of Tombelo and Coltano, amounting yearly to 300,000 lire, shall be turned over to the above-mentioned royal commission from the 1st of July next until the day when, the international institute of agriculture being legally constituted, the administration and usufruct of the said domains shall, in accordance with the announcement made to the international conference at its session of June 6, 1905, be transferred to the institute itself.

"In obedience to His Majesty’s interest, the royal commission has decided to apply the sum graciously placed at its disposal for the aforesaid period to the construction of a palace, where the international institute will have its headquarters, and which will therefore be solely due to the munificence of the sovereign. The new building that is to stand on the village Umberto I., near the Porta Pinciana, and will cover 10,000 square meters of public property, will, it is fully expected, be completed about the end of next year, which is the time when the permanent committee of the institute will likely be convened at Rome. This munificent act of His Majesty the King, whereby the erection of quarters worthy of the international institute of agriculture is provided for, thus begins the execution of the convention of June 7, 1905."

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Transmitting to the American Ambassador at Rome the President’s ratification of the Convention, on the 11th of July, 1906, Secretary Root made known that Congress had appropriated $4800 as the quota of the United States to the support of the International Institute of Agriculture for the fiscal year 1907, and $8000 for the travelling expenses of the delegates to be appointed to the grand assembly of the Institute, and for the salary of one member of the permanent committee; and to this he added: "In pursuance of the authority thus conferred, Mr. David Lubin, of Sacramento, California, has been selected to represent this Government on the permanent committee, it being understood that he is willing to serve without salary."

_Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1905 and 1906_

AGUINALDO Y FAMY, Emilio.

See (in this Volume) PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901.

AHMED RIZA.

See (in this Volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1909 (JANUARY-MAY).

ALASKA: A. D. 1903. Settlement of the boundary question. Dissatisfaction in Canada dissipated by better knowledge of the facts.

The Alaska boundary question (see in Volume VI. of this work, under ALASKA BOUNDARY QUESTION) was brought to a settlement in 1903 by an arrangement which submitted it to a Commission of six, three representing the United States and three acting for Great Britain and Canada. The American Commissioners were the Honorable Elihu Root, Secretary of War, and senators Henry C. Lodge and George Turner, of Massachusetts and the State of Washington respectively. The British and Canadian members were the Lord Chief Justice of England, Lord Alverstone, Sir Louis Jette, of Quebec, and A. B. Aylesworth, of Toronto, Ontario. The Commission, meeting in London, arrived at its decision in October, signing, on the 20th, an agreement on all the questions submitted. "By this award," said President Roosevelt, in his subsequent Message to Congress, "the right of the United States to the control of a continuous strip or border of the mainland shore, skirting all the tide-water inlets and sinuosities of the coast, is confirmed; the entrance to Portland Canal (concerning which legitimate doubt appeared) is defined as passing by Tongass Inlet and to the northwestward of Wales and Pearse islands: a line is drawn from the head of Portland Canal to the fifty-sixth degree of north latitude: and the interior border line of the strip is fixed by lines connecting certain mountain summits lying between Portland Canal and Mount St. Elias and running along the crest of the divide separating the coast slope from the inland watershed, at the only part of the frontier where the drainage ridge approaches the coast within the distance of ten marine leagues stipulated by the treaty as the extreme width of the strip around the heads of Lynn Canal and its branches. While the line so traced follows the provisional demarcation of 1878 at the crossing of the Stikine River, and that of 1899 at the summits of the White and Chilkoot passes, it runs much farther inland from the Klehine than the temporary line of the later _modus vivendi_, and leaves the entire mining district of the Porcupine River and Glacier Creek within the jurisdiction of the United States. The result is satisfactory in every way. It is of great material advantage to our people in the Far Northwest. It has removed from the field of discussion and possible danger a question liable to become more acutely accentuated with each passing year. Finally it has furnished a signal proof of the fairness and good will with which two friendly nations can approach and determine issues involving national sovereignty, and by their nature incapable of submission to a third power for adjudication."

_Message of President Roosevelt, December 7, 1903._

In Canada the feeling was very different from that expressed by President Roosevelt. There, the dissatisfaction was intense. The two Canadian Commissioners had opposed the award, while Lord Alverstone cast his vote with the three Americans, which provoked the accusation that his decision had been given, at the instigation of the British Government, not judicially, but diplomatically, for the pleasing of the United States, at the sacrifice of Canadian interests and rights. The groundlessness of such defamatory suspicions became plain when Lord Alverstone made public the reasons for his vote. A recent historian of Canada ends his account of the matter with the following remarks:

"In vain did students and experts declare that they had felt before the tribunal met that Canada had, in very many respects, a weak case. It was pointed out that some of the Canadian surveys gave the line as the Americans claimed it, that Americans had by long occupation got a hold upon and a right of possession to various ports and sections, and that against this occupancy there had been no British protest whatever. Finally one distinguished citizen reminded the Canadians that if they had been allowed to select one man as sole arbitrator they would have been glad to accept Lord Alverstone. Lord Alverstone was really the one arbitrator and judge. Had he decided against the Americans, the case would have been deadlocked for years. In time Canadians came to a more sober and reasonable attitude on the subject. They came to see that Lord Alverstone could not have been prejudiced and that his decision was really the only one that was fair and unbiased. Some came also to see that the American case was much the stronger, and that in this light the decision was a just one. But they were not and are not ready to believe that the whole scheme was anything but one contrived at Washington to get the contest settled to the advantage of the Americans."

_F. B. Tracy, Tercentenary History of Canada,