negotiator said to Lord Palmerston: "The United States sought no exclusive privilege or preferential right of any kind in regard to the proposed communication (that is, a canal or railroad), and their sincere wish, if it should be found practicable, was to see it dedicated to the common use of all nations on the most liberal terms and a footing of perfect equality for all. That the United States would not, if they could, obtain any exclusive right or privilege in a great highway which naturally belonged to all mankind."[1] This statement expresses accurately the avowed intention and resolve of the United States from 1850 to 1912 concerning any Panama Canal. All treaties on the subject are based on this intention and resolve, many times reiterated by official representatives of the American Government.'
Here we have distinct and unequivocal declarations by the two statesmen concerned in negotiating this Treaty on behalf of the United States, and so far as the question is one of intention, their evidence of that intention is, as it seems to me, to all intents and purposes conclusive of the matter.
And if we turn back to the text of the Treaty we find that effect is given to this intention in terms which are little short of express. I have already read to you the Preamble, but the meaning of it is, I hope, more clear since we have discussed the earlier Convention to which it refers. The Preamble states that the 'general principle' of neutralization established by Article VIII of that Convention is to remain unimpaired, and the principle of neutralization mentioned in that Article is, as I have endeavoured to show you, that the Canal shall be open to the subjects and the citizens of Great Britain and the United States and of other States conforming to the arrangement on equal terms. Neutralization is a wide term; it is used in International Law in various senses, and diplomats who draft agreements do not always
- ↑ Cited, p. 12, supra.
