Legation of
the United States,
London, November 11, 1881.
(Received November 26.)
No. 218.][Inclosure in No. 218.]
Earl Granville to
Mr. Hoppin.
Foreign
Office
November 10, 1881.
Sir: You are doubtless aware that Mr. Lowell
left with this department on the 12th of July last a copy of a dispatch
which had been addressed to him by Mr. Blaine on the 24th of June, in
which the Secretary of State calls attention to the right and duty which
are imposed on the United States Government under the treaty signed in
1846 between the United States of America and the Republic of New
Granada, now known as the United States of Colombia, to guarantee the
neutrality of the intero ceanic canal which is projected across the
isthmus of Panama. Mr. Blaine further points out the special interest
which the United States have in the preservation of this neutrality and
in preventing the use of the canal in a manner detrimental to themselves
during any war in which the United States or Colombia might be a
party.
But the point on which especial stress is laid in this dispatch is the
objection entertained by the Government of the United States to any
concerted action of the European powers for the purpose of guaranteeing
the neutrality of the canal or determining the conditions of its
use.
I have now the honor to state to you that although some time has elapsed
since the views of the United States Government on this question were
communicated to Her Majesty’s Government, they have not failed in the
mean while to bestow upon it all the consideration to which the
importance of the subject gives it every claim, and if it has not
received an earlier recognition, the delay has been mainly caused by the
suspense which so long existed as to the termination of the sad tragedy
of the 2d of July.
Her Majesty’s Government have noted with satisfaction the statement made
by Mr. Blaine that there is no intention on the part of the Government
of the United States to initiate any discussion upon this subject, and
in the same spirit I do not now propose to enter into a detailed
argument in reply to Mr. Blaine’s observations.
I should wish, therefore, merely to point out to you that the position of
Great Britain and the United States with reference to the canal,
irrespective of the magnitude of the commercial relations of the former
power with countries to and from which, if completed, it will form the
highway, is determined by the engagements entered into by them
respectively in the convention which was signed at Washington on the
19th of April 1850, commonly known as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, and Her
Majesty’s Government rely with confidence upon the observance of all the
engagements of that treaty.
I have, &c.,
