Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-10
THEY EXPECT A REJECTION
Officials Do Not Believe British Will Agree
to Amended Treaty.
Secretary Hay BftterlysDisappointe
Thinks That Great Mistake
Has Been Made.

Lord Pauneefote, the British ambassador,
was in conference with Secretary Hay for
half an hour at the State Department this
morning. The officials have nothing to say
touching the future Of the pending Hay
Pauncefote treaty. 1t Is plain to be seen.
however, that the action of the Senate COM
mittee in bringing in the amendment yes
terday Is not acceptable and is regarded by
the officials as greatly endangering the life
Of the treaty.
If the Senate first adopts this amendment
and then ratifies the treaty, a conclusion
by no means certain in the official mind, 1t
is said that the President will feel obliged
to sign the treaty, placing the responsibility
upon the Senate, and then leaving it to the
British government to accept or reject.
The officials believe that the British will
reject the treaty. and in that case the Clay
ton-Bulwer treaty will prevail again, its
force having been recognized, according to
the officials, not only by the executive
branch of our government in preparing this
pending treaty, but also by the Senate of
the United States. as evidenced in the re-
port which accompanied the treaty yes
terday when it was presented to the Senate.
A Bitter disappointment.
The recommendation of the Senate COM
mittee on foreign relations that the Mica
raguan treaty be amended is said to be a
DltleT disappointment " oeCIeldTy
He is proud of that treaty and believes that
great mistake has been made by, the
committee An effort will be made to de-
feat the amendment proposed, when the
matter is voted on in the Senate, but 1t is
thought there is very little hope on Mr..
Hays part that his efforts in that direction
will be successful. Therefore the private
opinion in administration circles is that the
treaty will never be perfected and that the
construction of the Nicaraguan canal is a
long way off. 1t Is believed that Great
Britain will not accept the treaty if amend
ed as the Senate committee proposes, and
that, moreover it could not in that form
receive the sanction of the other maritime
powers.
A Larger Navy.
In this connection, the suggestion comes
from some quarter that, after all, 1t would
be much better for this country to spend in
the construction of a navy the money that
it would cost to build the canal: that with
a sufficient navy on each coast of this con-
tinent there would not be the need for
transferring naval vessels from one ocean
to the other and that the canal would have
no value from the point Of view of naval
strategy. This suggestion is further sup
ported by the argument that the isthmus
is natural barrier to European trade, and
that in the absence of the canal there is
rapidly increasing transshipnient of Euro
pean commerce by rIif across our CONT
nent. to the profit of this country. With
the amendment of the treaty and its fail
ure. as predicted by those who oppose the
amendment. it Is expected that the canal
proposition will lose support, and the bill
now pending in Congress will not become
law.
Predict Ratification without Difficulty
The republicans of the Senate say that
there will be no serious difficulty about the
ratification of the Nicaraguan canal treaty
as amended by the foreign relations COM
mittee. 1t is said that the dissatisfaction
of the State Department with the action of
thevcommittee will not affect the prospects
of the amended treaty in the Senate. Ad-
vocates Of the amendment say that they
think it will be realized that the action Of
the committee is salvation to the adminis-
tration, as the treaty without the amend
ment would not stand public scrutiny and
would have injured the administration po-
litically.
A member Of the foreign relations COM
mittee said today that he did not believe
that Great Britain could afford to reject
the amended treaty, but that If she did SO,
and other powers were dissatisfied with the
amendment, Congress would go ahead and
provide for the construction of the canal
without regard to the absence of a treaty.