THE PANAMA CANAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 42, 12 October 1912, Page 5

THE PANAMA CANAL.

BRITAIN’S ATTITUDE. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright., (United Press Association.) London, October 11. Sir E. Grey, in reply to a question in the House of Commons, said that after the passage of the Panama Canal Bill, Britain had informed the United States that if eventually differences re specting the interpretation of th? Hny-Paunecfote Treaty were unsettled they would ask for arbitration. The whole subject was new under the I Government’s consideration. In its present form the Panam i. Can al Bill is a direct violation of the HayPaunccfote Treaty with Great Britain. “The Senate has clone its worst,’’ declared the ‘Journal cf Commerce,’ New York. The ‘New York World’ •observes: “It is said in Washington that President Taft will sign the Pana rna Tolls Bill if it is presented to him. We find this almost incredible. The Bill breaks a formal treaty of the United States, and its ratification would ho an indelible disgrace. “We were not, as some apologists for this dishonour say, outwitted ir. the Hay-Paunccfoto Treaty. We secured on favourable terms the abandonment by Great Britain of her prior treaty claims upon the canal. It was a good, sensible bargain for both countries, for its basis was mutual good feeling and growing friendship. To break this treaty at the call of private greed must eventually mean turning our backs upon the noble record of the United States as loader in the cause of international arbitration. The ‘World’ lias gladly praised President Taft’s services in tins enure Has not Washington slandered him in assuming that be will sign a Bill so infamous that it is incapable even of plausible defence in the peace court of the nations?” Beside this leading article, the ‘World’ published a cartoon representig a giant bully labelled “special privilege,” standing with his back against the entrance to the canal. The bully/ who has a cigar in his mouth, has just torn the Hay-Panncefoto Treaty into fragments, shouting: “To with. treaties.” “Infamy Linked to .Madness” was the title of the ‘New York Sun’s’ edi tonal on the Canal Bill. “In this measure,” it says, “Congress destroys al one blow the credit of the nation abroad and servos a notice that a covenant agreement to which the United States is a party is not worth the paper it is written on. It assails one class of citizens at home and deliberately invites litigation neither Hie end nor the consequences of which any man can foresee.”