War Trade Board Files: Panama Canal, License Control

The Solicitor for the Department of State ( Woolsey ) to the Counselor for the War Trade Board ( Chadbourne )

Memorandum

In reply to your inquiry respecting the right to require licenses from vessels passing through the Panama Canal under any treaties with foreign nations, allow me to say that the status of the Panama Canal is determined by the treaty between the United States and Colombia of 1846, the Hay-Pauncefote treaty with Great Britain of 1901, and the treaty with Panama of 1903; and by our diplomatic correspondence with these countries. In these treaties and this correspondence the United States guaranteed, among other things, the “neutrality” or “neutralization” of the Canal, and that it should be “free and open” under certain rules. As the licensing of vessels merely passing through the Canal and not stopping for supplies is in the nature of a war measure aimed at the destruction of the enemy, it is logical to conclude that the application of such a measure to vessels passing through the Canal would be inconsistent with the neutrality or neutralized status of the Isthmus. In this I am not considering vessels passing to and from other portions of American territory.

Any vessels passing through the Canal desiring to take on supplies therein could, I believe, be controlled by license, as the conservation of such supplies might be regarded as in the nature of a domestic measure for the protection of the Canal, the duty and responsibility of protection being conceded to the United States by treaty and diplomatic correspondence. In so far as vessels passing through the Canal desire to take on supplies, so far, I believe, the War Trade Board can control those vessels by its licensing system, at least in respect to the articles taken on board, their use, destination, et cetera.

L. H. Woolsey