denying that the treaty is in full force and vigor." (1) After nearly a half century of perennial disagreement and diplomatic wrangling, in which Great Britain showed none too pronounced a tendency to live up to the letter of her compact, a second epoch in isthmian diplomacy opened with the negotiation of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty. The time had come for the United States to gain definite authorization to go ahead with individual sponsorship of a canal, if the building of one was to be ever realized. But instead of uprooting the sources of contention that grew so deeply in the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, the new compact furnished fresh and fertile ground for future dissension. Great Britain secured the specific incorporation in the new covenant of the "'general principle' of neutralization" that had been established in Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer agreement, Article II of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty provides that a canal may be constructed directly under auspices of the United States government at its own cost or by private American enterprise. The constructing nation also is empowered to "have and enjoy all rights incident to such construction, as well as the exclusive right of providing for the regulation and management of the (2) canal." The next article, together with elastically applied interpretation of the principle of Article VIII of the ClaytonBulwer treaty, furnishes the grounds upon which British protests (1) Quoted by John Holladay Latand in The United States and Latin America, p. 180. (2) Diplomatic History of the Panama Canal, p. 292. resulted in checking tolls exemptions. This article adopts for the control of the canal substantially the rules embodied in the convention of Constantinople, entered into Oct. 28, 1888, by European powers for the neutralization of the Suez canal. The first and most significant of these provisions is: "The canal shall be free and open to the vessels of commerce and of war of all nations observing these rules, on terms of entire equality, so that there shall be no discrimination against any such nation, or its citizens or subjects, in respect of the conditions or charges of traffic or otherwise. Such conditions and charges of traffic shall be just and equitable." The second rule of Article III guarantees the canal against blockade or hostilities in wartime and empowers the United States to exercise policing powers. The fourth provides that belligerents may not disembark troops or munitions unless in case of accidental necessity. The fifth forbids warships to revictual or take on supplies at the canal, save in similar emergency. The neutralization of the canal is extended by the treaty three miles from either end, and all plants and buildings on (1) the waterway are declared to be immune from attack. The original Hay-Pauncefote treaty, rejected by the senate, was practically written by John Hay, President McKinley's secretary of state. In his desire to get a new agreement that would supersede the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, Hay minimized certain aspects of vital consequence to the United States, most notably (1) Ibid. p. 294. |