TOPICS OF THE MONTH. 



^53 



from the air at its leisure, as stated by 

 Major Baden-Powell, who is one of the 

 first authorities on aerial matters in the 

 world. So urgent does Hie need of an 

 aerial fleet appear to thinknig men at 

 home that towns and counties are being 

 urged to follow the example of French 

 and German cities and present airships 

 to the Government. Hampshire is giving 

 an aeroplane, and other counties will 

 doubless follow her example. Leipzig 

 gave i^ 1 0,000 towards the building of 

 airshio sheds in Germany, and a subsidy 

 ■of i!"iooo a year, and Leipzig is no 

 larger than Melbourne or Sydney. Such 

 local action is useful as showing the 

 fact that the need for an air fleet is 

 realised, but the cost of creatmg one is 

 actually very small. The money spent 

 on one Dreadnought battleship would 



be enough to build some twenty-four 

 rigid dirigibles of the Zeppelin type, 

 and a thousand aeroplanes. 



When the supremacy of the British 

 Empire was threatened on the sea the 

 Dominions, with spontaneous loyalty, 

 cheerfully paid for the finest battleships 

 obtainable. Fortunately there is no need 

 to secure that preponderance in the air 

 that is a necessity on the sea ; but it is 

 absolutely imperative that Great Britain 

 should be able to resist and defeat any 

 raiding air fleet flying over her borders. 

 Here, surely, is an opportunity for the 

 Dominions to again demonstrate their 

 concern in the welfare of the Empire 

 by assisting to build an air fleet great 

 enough to defend the heart of the 

 Empire 



VIII. THE PANAMA TROUBLE. 



After a temporary lull, the question 

 of the tolls on the Panama Canal are 

 again being discussed. 



The difficulty arose over an act passed 

 by Congress on August Qth, 1912, deal- 

 ing with the government and adminis- 

 tration of the canal, and also ftxing 

 the tolls to be charged. Mr. Taft had 

 always urged discriminating tolls in 

 favour of all American commerce, but 

 the bill did not go so far as that. It 

 only gave preference to those American 

 vessels engaged in the coastal trade, a 

 trade which absorbs far the greater part 

 of American shipping, and contained a 

 ■clause prohibiting the passage of the 

 canal to vessels owned by railway com- 

 panies. This was intended to prevent 

 the great American railway companies 

 neutralising the possible effects of the 

 canal in reducing freight rates. But it 

 also hit the Canadian railways owning 

 shins. The British Government entered 

 a formal protest. This discrimination 

 in favour of American coasting vessels 

 Avas, it urged, an infraction of the Hay- 

 Pauncefote treaty, which sa\-s that, 

 " The canal shall be free and open to 

 the vessels of commerce, and of war of 

 all nations. . . . On terms of entire 

 equality so that there shall be no dis- 

 crimination against any such nation or 

 its citizen or subjects in respect of the 



condition on charges of traffic or other- 

 wise." 



WHY THE TREATY WAS MADE. 

 The Id^ay-Pauncefote treat)-, con- 

 cluded in 1907 by John Ha}-, the 

 author of Little Breeches, Jim Bludso, 

 and other vigorous ballads, who was per- 

 haps the most famous of America's re- 

 cent Secretaries of State, and the late 

 Lord Pauncefote, one of the leading 

 advocates of International Arbitration, 

 at that time British Ambassador to the 

 L^nited States. According to the British 

 contention, the treaty was made in order 

 that the L^nited States might construct 

 a canal across the Isthmus of Panama 

 independent 1)', a right which she had 

 surrendered in the Bulwer-Cla}'ton treaty 

 of 1 850, which tlie new treat}- super- 

 seded. The British Government under- 

 stood that in this treaty it retained for 

 itself the guarantee of equal treatment 

 of all its vessels using the canal as a 

 quid pro quo for giving the L'nited 

 States the right she desired. The canal 

 protest, which was presented b}- Mr. 

 Bryce to Secretary Knox on December 

 gth, igi2, says : — 



ISaB infceiitiion of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty 

 was that the United States was to recover the 

 right to construct the Trans-Isthmian canal upon 

 the terms that wlien <'onstnictecl the waterway 

 was to be open to British and United States ships 

 on equal terms. 



