Produced by Stephen Hope and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net 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 Charge 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.