Mr. Day to Sir Julian Pauncefote.
Washington, February 16, 1898.
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 4th instant, making inquiry upon what grounds application has been made for permission for an escort of United States troops to accompany the Alaska relief expedition through Canadian territory.
Copy of your note was immediately communicated to the Acting Secretary of War with a request for the desired information. The reply from the War Department, just received, states that the Alaska relief expedition was designed to relieve persons in distress, not only in Alaska but also those in the Klondike gold regions and those en route to those regions through the lower passes near Dyea and Skagway; and in view of the fact that the armed force that accompanies this expedition is absolutely necessary for the protection of the expedition, its supplies, and funds against disorderly persons in Alaska after it has passed through Canadian territory and crosses the boundary into the territory of the United States, permission was desired for the detachment of armed troops—55 soldiers and the necessary officers—to accompany the expedition through Canadian territory. Without this armed escort it would be hazardous and inadvisable for the expedition to start for Alaska over the proposed route, and it might become necessary to select a route to Alaska entirely within the territory of the United States, which would in part defeat the object of the expedition.
Mr. Meiklejohn adds that, from the tenor of the last clause of the note from your embassy dated the 27th December last, this permission had been confidently expected, and, as the expedition is now on the way to Lynn Canal, it is important that this question should be settled at the earliest moment practicable.
I have, etc.,