The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-10
A NEW CANAL TREATY.

! Secretary Hay and NJ. Varilla, the
representative at Washington Of the
new state of Panama, are already en-
/ gagged in making a new canal treaty.
| The President is losing no time in his
| efforts to get ready to begin work on
| the canal. Secretary Hay, it seems,
| holds that in negotiating a canal treaty
| with Panama the text of the treaty
| with Colombia-the treaty which Co
! lombia refused to ratify-can be used,
the only change necessary being the
substitution of Panama for Colombia
wherever Colombia appears. The in
| ference from this is that it is the pol
| icy of the administration to pay Pan
anna the same sum for canal conces-
sions that Colombia was to be paid If
Panama gets $1O,OOOOOO the amount
which was to be paid to Colombia, she
will start on her career of independence
with a fun treasury.
OF course it isn't any concern of our
government what she does with the
money, though it is a pretty safe pre-
diction that her politicians will find a
way ~ Sc "a AeAl oAAeiS VI ANs
Mr.. Albert Snyder. the senior men,
Der of the Central American Improve
ment Company, who has many and
varied interests in Central America, in
all interview in New Orleans on Sat
urday, said the United States would
make a great mistake If they accord
ed Panama full recognition as an indie
pendent state before they fixed beyond
all question of a doubt just what they
were to have in the way of canal con-
cessions. Among other things he said:
1.-The new governments officials are not
going to give anything away, and if
they see a chance for making money
out of the canal concessions they will
do so, and in the long run we will have
TO go through another six months be-
fore the treaty is rejected or ratified.
To avoid all this trouble the best way
to do is to have everything settled def
ntely before recognition"
Evidently Mr.. Snyder hasn't much
confidence in the men at the head of
the new state of Panama. Doubtless
he thinks they are the same sort of
people that are found at the head of
affairs in other Central American
states. They will stand by their agree
ments only so long as they have to.
The indications are, however that
our government has made ample prep
arations for all contingencies. The
more the situation is studied the clear
er it appears that as much was known
at Washington about the preparations
on the isthmus for severing the rela-
lions between Panama and Colombia
as was known at Panama and Colon.
Our warships were on hand to prevent
Colombia from asserting her authority
by force, on the preteXt that we were
bound by the treaty Of 1916 to prevent
interference with traffic across tha
isthmus. Only n few days have
elapsed since Panama declared her in
dependence and already she has been
recognized by our government, and our
Secretary of State is engaged with her
representative in negotiating a canal
treaty. Doubtless the treaty will be
ready to submit to our Senate by the
end of this week, and no doubt there
will be some sort of authority in Pan
ANA to ratify it by the time it reaches
there.
The rapidity with which the revolu-
ton in Panama was inaugurated, in
dependence proclaimed and recognition
from the United States secured must
be rather startling to governments of
Europe. And there isn't any doubt
| that the new state has come to stay
at least. until the United States find
it advisable to take control of it.
Prof. Shepardson Of the University of
Chicago is quoted as saying that by
1910 Panama VIII belong to the United
States, that her example will be fol-
lowed by the other Central American
states the West Indies and Mexico,
that Canada will be annexed and that
by 1910 the United States and North
America will be the same. Hasn't he
some reason for his prophecy?