The following is an English statement of the situation of the controversy at the time the Joint High Commission adjourned: "The adjournment of the Commission with nothing accomplished is fresh in all our memories. Nor is it easy to determine on whose shoulders lies the blame of this unfortunate break down. America has been blamed for her stubbornness in refusing to submit to an arbitration which should take into consideration the possession of the towns and settlements under the authority of the United States and at present under their jurisdiction; while they have also been charged with having made no concessions at all to Canada in the direction of allowing her free access to her Yukon possessions. I am enabled to say, however, in this latter respect the Americans have not been so stiff-necked as has been made to appear. Although it was not placed formally before the Commission, it was allowed clearly to be understood by the other side, that in regard to Skagway, America was prepared to make a very liberal concession. They were ready, that is, to allow of the joint administration of Skagway, the two flags flying side by side, and to allow of the denationalisation, or internationalisation as it might otherwise be termed, of the White Pass and the Yukon Railroad, now completed to Lake Bennett, and the only railroad which gives access to the Yukon. They were even prepared to admit of the passage of troops and munitions of war over this road, thus doing away with the Canadian contention that, should a disturbance occur in the Yukon, they are at present debarred from taking efficient measures to quell it. {9} This proposition, however, does not commend itself to the Canadians, whose main object, I think I am justified in saying, is to have a railroad route of their own from beginning to end, in their own territory, as far north as Dawson City. At one time, owing to insufficient information and ignorance of the natural obstacles in the way, they thought they could accomplish this by what was known as the Stikine route. They even went so far as to make a contract with Messrs. McKenzie and Mann to construct this road, the contractors receiving, as part of their payment, concessions and grants of territory in the Yukon, which would practically have given them the absolute and sole control of that district. The value of this to the contractors can hardly be overestimated. However, not only did the natural obstacles I have referred to lead to the abandonment of the scheme, but the Senate at Ottawa threw out the Bill which had passed through the Lower House, affording a striking proof that there are times when an Upper House has its distinct value in legislation. It has been suggested (though I am the last to confirm it) that it was the influence of the firm of railroad