The Panama Canal Conflict between Great Britain and the United States of America

The Panama Canal Conflict
between Great
by Oppenheim
Lassa

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Title: The Panama Canal Conflict between Great Britain and the United
States of America A Study
Author: Oppenheim Lassa
Release Date: July 25, 2007 [EBook #22143]
Language: English
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THE PANAMA CANAL CONFLICT BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN
AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS London: FETTER LANE, E. C.
C. F. CLAY, Manager
Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET London: STEVENS AND SONS,
Ltd., 119 and 120, CHANCERY LANE Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.
Leipzig: F. A. BROCKHAUS New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
All rights reserved

THE PANAMA CANAL CONFLICT
BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A STUDY
BY
L. OPPENHEIM, M. A., LL. D.
Whewell Professor of International Law in the University of
Cambridge Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence
at Madrid Member of the Institute of International Law
SECOND EDITION
Cambridge: at the University Press 1913
Cambridge:

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M. A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
To my great surprise, the publishers inform me that the first edition of
my modest study on the Panama Canal conflict between Great Britain
and the United States is already out of print and that a second edition is
at once required. As this study had been written before the diplomatic
correspondence in the matter was available, the idea is tempting now to
re-write the essay taking into account the arguments proffered in Sir
Edward Grey's despatch to the British Ambassador at Washington of
November 14, 1912--see Parliamentary Paper Cd. 6451--and, in answer
thereto, in Mr Knox's despatch to the American Chargé d'Affaires in
London of January 17, 1913--see Parliamentary Paper Cd. 6585. But
apart from the fact that the immediate need of a second edition does not
permit me time to re-write the work, it seemed advisable to reprint the
study in its original form, correcting only some misprints and leaving
out the footnote on page 5. It had been written sine ira et studio and
without further information than that which could be gathered from the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, the Hay-Varilla
Treaty, the Panama Canal Act, and the Memorandum which President
Taft left when signing that Act. Hence, the reader is presented with a
study which is absolutely independent of the diplomatic
correspondence, and he can exercise his own judgment in comparing
my arguments with those set forth pro et contra the British
interpretation of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty in the despatches of Sir
Edward Grey and Mr Knox.
L. O.
Cambridge, February 15, 1913.

CONTENTS
I. Article III, No. 1 of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901 and Section 5

of the American Panama Canal Act of 1912, pp. 5-6--The
Memorandum of President Taft, pp. 7-9--The interpretation of Article
III of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty preferred by the United States, pp.
9-11.
II. The claim of the United States that she has granted the use of the
Panama Canal under a conditional most-favoured-nation clause, pp.
11-14--The United States has never possessed the power of refusing to
grant the use of the Panama Canal to vessels of foreign nations on
terms of entire equality, p. 15--Such use is the condition under which
Great Britain consented to the substitution of the Hay-Pauncefote
Treaty for the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, p. 16.
III. If the use of the Panama Canal by vessels of foreign nations were
derived from most-favoured-nation treatment, the United States would
not be bound to submit to the rules of Article III, Nos. 2-6, of the
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, p. 17--The Panama Canal would then lose its
neutral character and would be in danger of eventually being made the
theatre of war, p. 18--But it is the intention of the Hay-Pauncefote
Treaty permanently to neutralise the Panama Canal, p. 18--The three
objects of the neutralisation of an Inter Oceanic Canal, pp. 19-20--Is the
United States, under the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, subjected to more
onerous conditions than Turkey and Egypt are under the Suez Canal
Treaty?, pp. 20-22.
IV. Six reasons for the untenability of the American interpretation of
Article III, No. 1, of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, p. 23--The stipulation
of Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, p. 23--The motive for,
and the condition