Tolls Exemption.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 96, 16 April 1914, Page 5

Tolls Exemption.

AMD THE PANAMA CANAL.

TREATY NEGOTIATIONS. j[:Bt Etkotric Tki.rguaph- Copyright) j [Uniter Preub asm uta avion . j (Received 8.15 a.ui.) Washington, April 15. The Hon. Henry White, secretary to tho Embassy in London when the Hay-Pauneetote Treaty was negotiated, told the Senate Canals Committee unequivocally that it was never the intention of the I nited States to exempt any vessels passing through the canal.

The Senate committee made an order for the production, of hitherto unpublished correspondence covering the negotiation of the • llay-l’anncelote Treaty, and also ol the Clayton-Bnl-wer Convention.

Professor Emery Johnston declared that their foreign trade was certain to suffer discrimination by American goods being shipped Ireo of tolls to tho Pacific coast ex-Atlantic, and thence transhipped to Oriental ports.

The Hay-Pauncefote treaty was signed at Washington in 1901. It contains the following danse: “Tho Canal shall he free and open to tho vessels of commerce and of wav of all nations observing these rules, on terms of entire equality, so that there shall hd 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 bo just and equitable.” In a message to Congress in December 1911, President Taft advocated a system of rebates on U.S. Vessels using tho Canal, and expressed the opinion that such a system would not conflict with the terms of the Treaty. A Bill was subsequently submitted to Congress on these lines. Tho British Government objected that tho Bill infringed the treaty, and there was a good body of American opinion that it infringed the spirit, if not tho letter, of the treaty. In August 1912 the Bill became law, exempting coastwise trade and giving the President discretionary power to fix smaller dues for American vessels than for vessels of other nations. Mr Taft issued a long memorandum setting forth his reasons for agreeing to tho Bill, Ins argument, in effect, being that the words “all nations” .in the’ < treaty ■ meant “all nations other than the United States.”