ENGLAND, AMERICA, AND NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11621, 8 April 1901, Page 7

ENGLAND, AMERICA, AND NEW ZEALAND.

" TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Following up :m" last Friday's let, tor: there : are great crises : : in the lives of men and nations, ;i Once to every man and nation comes : the moment to decide some fateful, thing on which almost infinite issues hang. As Shakepere puts it: "There iB a tide in the affairs . of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries." One such moment came to iingland when Sir . George Grey advised her against allowing the Orange and Transvaal States to take root/in South Africa another came when he was recalled for nearly securing, South African Federation. Wow,-a, hundred million of money and 50,000 British soldiers put hors de combat, will not atone for the dreadful mistakes of the English officials responsible for rejecting Sir George Grey's policy. Another of such moments occurred almost at the same time in Central America, . when Gap tarn Pim, of the Royal navy, commanding Her Majesty's ship Gorgon, on the Mosquito coast, in the Caribbean Sea, bought Monkey Point from the King of Mosquito, to secure the site to Britain for the Nicaragua Canal. He wrote to the Duke of Newcastle, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, whom Sir George Grey wrote to, and met with the same fate 1 In vain, he pointed out the immense advantages derivable from* a new trade route through Central America, to make England independent of the Panama route, monopolised by the United States. In vain he pointed . out that the postal service would bo secure; that there would bo a great highway in British interests, offering the shortest, cheapest, healthiest, and safest route to New Zealand, Australia, Polynesia, and Japan; that British Columbia could be reached four days earlier than by any existing route; that the finest cotton lands could be reopened; that Captain Pirn's friends would find the money if the British Government would favourably countenance the movement. All in vain. He was snubbed, dismissed, to please the United States. To further please America, whoso friendship has cost us a high price, and may yet bo found to cost too dear, England retired from the Mosquito territory, abandoning the Mosquito Indians, who had placed themselves under the protectorate of Groat Britain in 1670, James 11. acknowledging their King. Britain handed them over to Nicaragua, without saying by your leave, but, fortunately, made a treaty with Nicaragua on the question, of which treaty more wall be heard. . Now, no doubt, British statesmen would do much to restore the status quo ante, when Captain Pirn secured Monkey Point in 1859. Alas, it is too late! .And now Britain is confronted with the consequences of that fateful policy at a moment when she is embroiled in South Africa, practically scouted from the Yangtsc territory, and threatened in India. It is bad form for a partner to require an alteration in the deed of partnership when tho other partner is too kneedeep .in trouble and anxiety to reflect calmly. It is so very peculiar that, whereas, the Boer war broke out on October 11, 1399, the United States should, on December 7 of the same year, within a few weeks of the outbreak, have tho Hepburn Bill before the House of Representatives, disregarding and defying the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, signed April 19, 1850, guaranteeing the neutrality and independence of any exclusive control of the proposed Nicaragua Canal. If Britain does not stand by that treaty, or by the proposed modification of it, she probably will surrender her commercial supremacy in both tho North and South Pacific Oceans, and perhaps subject New Zealand to inconvenience. In 1898, for the first time in history, the exports of merchandise from ihe United States exceeded those of the United Kingdom; America's being £252,144,000, and England's £233,359,000, that is 18| millions less.

America is playing a high-handed game for' very 'high stakes over the Clayton-Bul-wer treaty. That important convention provides first: "The Government of the United States and Great Britain hereby declare that neither the one nor the other will ever obtain, or maintain, for itself any exclusive control over the said ship-canal, agreeing that neither will ever erect or maintain any fortifications commanding the same or in the vicinity thereof, or occupy or colonise, or assume or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast, or any part of Central America; nor will either make use of any protection which either affords or may afford, or any alliance which either has or may have, to or with any State or people, for the purpose of maintaining or erecting any such fortification, or of occupving, fortifying, or colonising Nicaragua, Costa Rica, tho Mosquito Coast, oi of any part of Central America, or of assuming or exorcising dominion over the same." The second article enacts that in case of war between the two countries, the canal is to be neutral territory, and not to be molested by cither of the belligerents; and that this inviolability is to extend to such reasonable distance from' each end of the said canal, or pass, as may be Hereafter determined. The third article provides that parties contracting to construct such canal, after having obtained the consent and authority of the local Government interested, shall be protected b" the contracting Powers against any unjust detention, seizure or any violence whatsoever. Fourth, Great Britain and America, to use all their influence to induce the local Governments to erect two free ports or harbours at each end of the canal. Fifth, when complete, the canal to be guaranteed from ' interruption or seizure, but conditionally only that all shall be fair, and no unjust favouritism of ono nation over another be shown by the company. If the company should transgress this wise and equitable regulation, each of the Powers may adopt such measures ox seek such redress as may be deemed advisable; six months' notice being previously given to other guaranteeing States. Sixth, other Powers to be invited to form this compact." —I am, etc., . : F. G. Ewington.