Page:The Panama Canal Controversy.djvu/24

 The Governments of Great Britain and the United States having not only desired, in entering into this Convention, to accomplish a particular object, but also to establish a general principle, they hereby agree to extend their protection by Treaty stipulations to any other practicable communications, whether by canal or railway, across the isthmus which connects North and South America; and especially to the interoceanic communications, should the same prove to be practicable, whether by canal or railway, which are now proposed to be established by the way of Tehuantepec or Panama. In granting, however, their joint protection to any such canals or railways as are by this Article specified, it is always understood by Great Britain and the United States, that the parties constructing or owning the same shall impose no other charges or conditions of traffic thereupon than the aforesaid Governments shall approve of as just and equitable; and that the same canals or railways, being open to the subjects and citizens of Great Britain and the United States on equal terms, shall also be open on like terms to the subjects and citizens of every other State which is willing to grant thereto such protection as Great Britain and the United States engage to afford.

Now the object and scheme of this Treaty are clear. Both parties contemplated that the Canal would be constructed by private enterprise, and, indeed, there were already in the field a Company promoted by Mr. Vanderbilt, with a concession from the Nicaraguan Government, and a company partly American, partly British, with a concession for the Panama route; they also contemplated that the Canal would be constructed within the sovereignty of some third State. But in order to induce capitalists to join in the enterprise it was necessary that there should be a guarantee of protection against destruction or seizure of the Canal, a protection obviously essential in view of the frequent changes of Government