Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/226



216 ANDREW FISH

LATER STAGES OF THE DIPLOMATIC STRUGGLE."

The dispatch from Lord John Russell to the British Am- bassador which distressed President Buchanan so much was dated August 24, 1859, and contained the following offending passage :

"Her Majesty's Government must, therefore, under any circumstances, maintain the right of the British crown to the Island of San Juan. The interests at stake in con- nection with the retention of that island are too import- ant to admit of compromise, and your Lordship will, consequently, bear in mind that whatever arrangement as to the boundary line is finally arrived at, no settlement of the question will be accepted by Her Majesty's Gov- ernment which does not provide for the Island of San Juan being reserved to the British Crown." 52 The interests at stake were those of defence ; it was sup- posed that the island was of very great strategic value. This view was held by both Britons and Americans. This aspect of the matter was not an unimportant one at that time, how- ever it may look now, but for Lord John Russell to say that "no settlement would be accepted which did not provide for the island being reserved to the British Crown" was surely to pre- judge the case and to utter sentiments contrary to the spirit of the Marcy correspondence. We have seen how it upset the President. He complained :

"We all believed that the line ran through the Canal de Arro. Under this impression you may judge of our astonishment when we found that Lord John, in his first diplomatic note, gives us fair notice that Great Britain never will surrender the subject-dispute. He waits not to hear what can be said on this side of the water in support of our title, but informs us in effect that he had pre- judged the case."

The main outline of the dispute may be recalled. The commissioners were disputing over the interpretation of the treaty of 1846 the British claimed the Archipelago on the

51 I am indebted to Moore's International Arbitrations for much of the in- formation used in this section.

52 Quoted by Alexander Begg in his History of Britsh Columbia, p. 244.