The Panama Canal Conflict between Great Britain and the United States of America | Page 6

Canal there is thereby indirectly recognised the power of the United States to take all such measures as might become necessary for the defence of the Canal against a threatening attack. Apart from this case, the United States, even if she herself were a belligerent, has no more rights in the use of the Canal than her opponent or a neutral Power; on the contrary, she is as much bound as these Powers to submit to the rules of Article III, Nos. 2-6, of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty.

IV.
However this may be, the question as to whether the stipulation of Article III, No. 1, of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty that vessels of all nations shall be treated on the basis of entire equality is meant to apply to vessels of all nations without exception, or only to the vessels of foreign nations and not to those of the United States, can only be decided by an interpretation of Article III which takes the whole of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty as well as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty into consideration.
(1) There is no doubt that according to the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty the future Canal was to be open on like terms to the citizens of all nations including those of the United States, for Article VIII expressly stipulates "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...."
(2) The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty has indeed been superseded by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, but it is of importance to notice the two facts, expressed in the preamble of the latter:--(a) that the only motive for the substitution of the latter for the former treaty was to remove any objection which might arise under the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty to the construction of the Canal under the auspices of the Government of the United States; (b) that it was agreed that the general principle of neutralisation as established by Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty should not be considered to be impaired by the new treaty. Now the equal treatment of American, British, and any other nation's vessels which use the Canal is part and parcel of the general principle of neutralisation as established by Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, and such equal treatment must, therefore, be considered not to have been impaired by Article III of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty.
(3) Article III of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty stipulates--as a consequence of the fact, expressed in the preamble of the Treaty, that the general principle of neutralisation of the Canal as established by Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty shall not be impaired by the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty--that the United States adopts, as the basis of the neutralisation of the Canal, six rules substantially as embodied in the Suez Canal Treaty of Constantinople of 1888. Now although the Suez Canal Treaty nowhere directly lays down a rule which is identical with the rule of Article III, No. 1, of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, it nevertheless insists upon equal treatment of the vessels of all nations by stating in Article XII:--"The high contracting parties, in application of the principle of equality concerning the free use of the canal, a principle which forms one of the bases of the present treaty, agree that...." That this principle of equality of all nations concerning the free use of the Suez Canal means equality of vessels of all nations with the exception of the vessels of Egypt or even of Turkey, has never been contended; such a contention would, I am sure, have been objected to by the parties to the Suez Canal Treaty. For this reason the term "all nations" in the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty can likewise only mean all nations, including the United States.
(4) The literal meaning of the words "all nations" leads to the same conclusion. If something is stipulated with regard to "all" nations, every nation is meant without exception. If an exception had been contemplated, the words "all nations" could not have been used, and if all foreign nations only were contemplated, the words "all foreign nations" would have been made use of.
(5) There is also an argument from Article IV of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty which states that no change of territorial sovereignty or of the international relations of the country or countries traversed by the Canal should affect the general principle of neutralisation or the obligation of the high contracting parties under the treaty. The general principle of neutralisation is, as laid down in the preamble of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, the general principle of neutralisation as established by Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, and it has already been shown--see above IV, No. 2, p. 24--that equal treatment of British, American, and any other nation's vessels using the