The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-02-13
THE NICARAGUA CANAL

To the people of this country it can
not but be matter Of regret that de-
lay has occurred in the arrangements
made by the present Administration
of the United States for the construc.
ton of ship canal through Nicara-
guam territory. However good or
bad the reasons may be that have led
the United States Senate to refuse to
ratify the Treaty which had been ne
gotiated with the Nicaraguan Gov
eminent. none of them have any in
terest for US, except in so far as they
have been influential to delay the
construction of the great highway be-
tween the Atlantic and the Pacific,
which the Treaty promised to give us.
In an able and reasonable article
which we reprint to-day from a New
York paper, one of these reasons is
considered. For our own part, how
ever, we take little account of the OBJ
jectiOns founded on the wording of
the ClaytonBulwer reaty. Treaties
are not made to serve for all time,
and have to be changed to suit cir
cumstances, as all who have watched
the history of the past quarter of q
century are compelled to recognize.
That there would have been any
great difficulty in arranging matters
with England in regard to the Mic
araguan canal we do not believe.
The proposed work would advantage
no one so much as British ship
owners and British merchants, and
that the canal should be the absolute
property of the United States Gov
eminent would in reality be a greater
safeguard to the British Nation than
anything short of it's being owned
by that nation herself, a thing very
unlikely of realization. Nay, in
view of possible complications into
which she may be drawn or driven,
Great Britain might find it to her
interest that the canal should be in
the hands of the United States rather
than in her own. Under any Cir
cumstances, we put down the diff
culties that might arise with that
country as likely to be of easy solu-
ton.
We doubt very much whether these
supposed difficulties, at whatever
weight they may have been appraised
by individual Senators, had much to
do with the refusal to Tatify the
Treaty. Moreover, in spite of what
has occurred, we cannot help enter
tanning the hope that the new Adj
ministration, which comes into power
next month, will accept the policy
which dictated the negotiations with
Nicaragua, and that the work of con-
structing the canal will ere long be
commenced. In placing so much
stress upon the advantage these
Islands will derive from this great
undertaking, we do not overlook the
fact that the Panama canal is in
course of construction. Both canals,
however, appear to us to be needed,
and the healthier, and as we have
reason to expect, safer route through
Nicaragua will almost always be the
one chosen by vessels coming to this
tort or making Honolulu a port of
cali. Moreover, if constructed by the
United States, the country with
whom almost all our commerce is
conducted, and with whose people so
large number of the white folks
here are connected by birth or re-
lationship, the country too to which
we look as the absolute and most re-
liable champion of the independence
of the Kingdom, we need never have
any fear that the wars and tumuIts
of the Old World will interfere with
the safety of our commerce with the
Atlantic ports, be they American or
European. We look, therefore, upon
the Nicaraguan Canal project as one
in which the interests of Hawaii are
intimately bound up, and view with
great regret the recent decision in re-
gard to it of the United Ssates Senate.
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