A DISREGARDED CONTRACT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 53, 20 July 1912, Page 4

A DISREGARDED CONTRACT.

The British Government, any British Government, is slow to move, but when it does it is pretty sure of its position and means business. This is the case with the Panama Canal, which the Americans desire to exploit by exempting .their ships from the payment of tolls. The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, which has been fully mentioned in the cables of late, provided that the Canal should be "free and open to the vessels of all nations on terms of entire equality,". without discrimination in "conditions or charges," and it was oil this understanding that Britain assented to the work and left the field clear for the Americans. It is characteristic of a section of the Yankee press that they should advocate what appears to them to be an inconvenient arrangement and to call Britain ugly names for asserting her and other nations' rights, but the American nation as' a whole is not dishonest, and can scarcely overlook the justice of Britain's protest or ignore her own national obligations. How illogical is the position taken up by some of the American papers over this matter is shown by the fact, noted in yesterday's cables, that in the Canadian Waterways Treaty of 1909 the United States demanded and obtained the same treatment as the Canadians. Yet these papers are protesting against granting Britain the samo treatment in regard to the Panama Canal, even though, a solemn agreement to do so was entered upon before the United States could make a start with the work of I cutting the isthmus. If a breach of faith is committed by the United States, then she will lay up a stoi'e of trouble foi; herself in the future. It is not likely that Canada, for instance, will continue to treat American ships using her canals on terms of equality or that the AngloFrench owners of the Suez Canal will allow American shipping the same terms as the shipping of other countries. Although Groat Britain and the United States are the only actual parties to the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, that contract in effect established a general principle for the internationalisation of the Panama Canal, which other nations have a right to expect will be adliered to. Germany already has two lines in the Panama trade. France, Italy and Spain have regular lines in the Colon trade, and Chili and Peru in the' west coast trade. Much of this traffic was established before the United States began the construction of the Canal; and established conditions may not be ignored In con'tra:ts such as that between the United States and Great Britain, especially where other nations have a tangible interest. In making her protest against the proposed departure from the terms of the Treaty, Britain is therefore voicing the. protest of all nations, and if the United States persists in its course she will have the hand of every country raised against her, r.nd a boycott of the huge and costly work now nearing completion would not then be a, remote possibility.