Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-23
England and America Will
Come to Terms.
NEGOTIATIONS GOING ON
Between Hay and Salisbury--Ihe
Present Relative Value to the
Two Countries.

New York, Jan. 23.-The Tribune's Lon
don correspondent writes: The Nlcara-
qua canal question has been taken up
by Secretary Hay and Lord salisbury III
a practical rather than a controversial
way. 1t is not believed that either of these
statesmen is anxious to attempt to untaV-
el these tangled skeins of diplomacy with
which the CIayton-Bulwer treaty has
been enmeshed in the course of fifty years.
They will prefer to make a fresh start in
a spirit of mutual accommodation and
good feeling. The practical business now
in hand is that Of adapting the Clayton
BulWer treaty to new conditions affecting
the interests of both countries.
The commercial interests of the world
and the highest ends of civilization Will
be promoted by the construction Of a
waterway through Nicaragua. Onr coun-
try may be more directly interested than
the other in the completion and control OF
the inter-oceanic canal, but both England
and America will benefit commercially by
the opening of the waterway and neither
can have any adequate motive to hamper
ing or retarding a great work which Will
l u - S'O 80
of the world. On this high ground the
two governments can meet and devise
practical measures for facilitating the
construction of the canal and for provld-
ing for its control and maintenance as a
neutral waite. way open at all times to the
shipping and navies of all nations. This
is a policy which they are now endeavor-
ing to carry out in an enlightened and
progressive spirit worthy of the genius of
the -A~nglo-Saxon race.
The relative interests of the two coun-
tries, both in the construction and the
control of the inter-oceanic waterway
have changed materially since the Clay
ton-Bulwer treaty was negotiated fifty
years ago. This is a point which Eng
lands statesmen of the highest standard
heartily admit. Since 1880 the Suez has
been opened ana it is under British con-
troll. 1t provides direct communication
!, with India and Australia and is the prin-
) cipal link in the chain which connects
} England and her eastern colonies.
? Influential Englishmen do not hesitate
, to say that from a strictly British or i'm
} perial point of view the projected Nicara-
, qua canal is less important now than it
? was in 1880. England's interest in it is
2 mainly commercial since it will supply
? shorter and more direct communication
z with China and the west coast of North
Y and South America. On the other hand,
z the truth is recognized in England that
2 Americas interests in the Nicaragua can
( al have materially increased since the ne.
= gOtiatiOn of the ClaytOn-BulWer treaty
. 1t is now essential as a military work fol
. uniting the Atlantic, gulf and Pacific
4 coasts and for concentrating the nava
x forces. AS a power with possessions il
K the East and West Indies it will be an cs.
. sential link in the American imperial sys.
4 tenn as the SuCZ canal is in the British en-.
q pire.
4 This change of balance in the interest
of the two countries in the Nicaragu;
canal has q direct bearing upon the tw,
questions of construction and contrO
- which are affected by the treaty of 1856
1t justices the substitution Of single il
place of JOINT control 9s the necessary con
ditiOn for the construction Of the wOr'
by the American government. Englis
Mt statesmen frankly concede that if tn
American government supplies the capita
required for the enterprise the treaty Q
n 1850 ought, in justice, to be revised so a
to allow the United states to control it
W work. Under the C~laytOn-Rulwe
treaty the Americans would be debarre
from landing even a corpOral's guard c