The Press.
London, England, 1856-06-28 00:00:00

of Great Britain and the United

States hereby declare that neither the one nor the other
will ever obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive control
over the said ship canal ; agreeing that neither will ever
erect or maintain any fortifications commanding the same,
or in the vicinity thereof, or occupy, or fortify, or colouise,
or assume, or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Central
America; nor will either make use of any protection
which either affords or may afford, or any alliance which
either has or may have, to or with any State or people,
for the purpose of erecting or maintaining any such fortifi-
cations, or of occupying, fortifying, or colonising Nicaragua,
Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Central
America. or of assuming or exercising dominion over the
same. Nor will Great Britain or the United States take
advantage of any intimacy, or use any alliance, connection,
or influence that either may possess with any State or
Government through whose territory the said canal may
pass, for the purpose of acquiring or holding, directly or
indirectly, fur the subjects or citizens of the one, any
rights or advantages in regard to commerce or navigation
through the said canal, which shall not be offered, on the
same terms, to the subjects or citizens of the other,—

maintains that her Majesty's Government interpreted
this article as a prohibition against either Govern-
ment doing what the words of the article explicitly

declared that neither

should thereafter

do ; " but that both Governments retained the righta
which they bad previously enjoyed, where those
rights were not expressly limited or abandoned."
With respect to the Mosquito protectorate, the
possession of Ruatan, and the offer of arbitration
made to Mr. Buchanan, Lord Clarendon says :

The treaty does not require the existing protection to
cease, but only forbids using such protection for certain
specified purposes.
I repeatedly informed Mr. Buchanan that it was the
wish of her Majesty's Government to withdraw from the
protectorate of Mosquito, provided they could do so with
honour, securing adequate provision for the King and the
Indians of that country ; that Ruatan was a possession
of her Majesty's Crown ; and that, as her Majesty's
Government could not consent to abandon the protecto-
rate of Mosquito, or to give up the Island of Ruatan,
merely in pursuance of an interpretation given by the
Government of the United States to a treaty, which inter-
pretation her Majesty's Government did not admit, the
most usual, as well as the most friendly, course to pursue
was to refer the meaning of the treaty to the decision of a
third power.
This offer was made by me to Mr. Buchanan by the
direction of her Majesty's Government; it was several
times renewed and discussed between ns. Mr. Campton
ought undoubtedly, according to his instructions, to have
communicated to Mr. Marcy, at the time when he
received it, my despatch of the 10th of November, giving
an account of my conversations with Yr. Buchanan; but

615

his not having done so was of little consequence, as Mr.
Buchanan had often assured me that everything which
had passed between us bad been duly reported to his
Government. I am, therefore, at a loss to understand
how it happened that the President should, as stated by
Mr. Marcy, have been induced only by certain collateral
incidents to infer that arbitration by a third power of
the differences between the two Governments in relation
to Central America had been proposed by her Majesty's
Government.

Lord Clarendon considers that the question of
boundary is the only one so far as Belize is con-
cerned, and one easily settled. Ruatan and the Bay
Islands he maintains have been held at different
periods by Great Britain as well as by Spain, and,
having been again occupied by British settlers,
formal possession was taken of Ruatan in 1839 by
Great Britain. In 1852 the island received a regular
form of colonial government, but Great Britain "did
not thereby acquire any territorial rights that she
did not previously possess."
" The Government of the United States," continues
Lord Clarendon, " maintain that, even supposing the
Clayton-Bulwer treaty was only prospective in its
operation, these islands were no part of the British
dominions earlier than 1852 ; " but, Lord Clarendon
observes in conclusion :

If the differences between the two Governments on this
subject cannot be arranged by direct negotiation, there
seems no reason why they might not form the matter of a
reference to a third power.
Her Majesty's Government have learned with satisfac-
tion that you are instructed to enter into communication
with me in respect to Central America, in order to ascer-
tain, in the first place, whether existing differences cannot
be promptly terminated by direct negotiation ; and, if they
cannot be so settled, then to discuss the conditions of
arbitration on those points of difference as to which this
method of settlement may be requisite or appliable.
This is the course which her Majesty's Government has
throughout been willing to adopt; and I have accordingly
the honour to inform you that I am prepared to enter
into the proposed communication, and I trust that oar
conferences will be conducted in that spirit of cordiality
and frankness which, as Mr. Marcy justly observes, is
dictated by the true interests of Great Britain and the
United States.