they should now suddenly claim the Island of Nantucket ....

'I believe that no three men [the President said] in the United
States could be found who would be more anxious than our own
delegates to do justice to the British claim on all points where
there is even a color of right on the British side. But the
objection raised by certain Canadian authorities to Lodge, Root,
and Turner, and especially to Lodge and Root, was that they had
committed themselves on the general proposition. No man in public
life in any position of prominence could have possibly avoided
committing himself on the proposition, any more than Mr.
Chamberlain could avoid committing himself on the question of the
ownership of the Orkneys if some Scandinavian country suddenly
claimed them. If this claim embodied other points as to which
there was legitimate doubt, I believe Mr. Chamberlain would act
fairly and squarely in deciding the matter; but if he appointed a
commission to settle up all these questions, I certainly should
not expect him to appoint three men, if he could find them, who
believed that as to the Orkneys the question was an open one.

'I wish to make one last effort to bring about an agreement
through the Commission [he said in closing] which will enable the
people of both countries to say that the result represents the
feeling of the representatives of both countries. But if there is
a disagreement, I wish it distinctly understood, not only that
there will be no arbitration of the matter, but that in my
message to Congress I shall take a position which will prevent
any possibility of arbitration hereafter; a position . . . which
will render it necessary for Congress to give me the authority to
run the line as we claim it, by our own people, without any