e is
thereby indirectly recognised the power of the United States to take
all such measures as might become necessary for the defence of the
Canal against a threatening attack. Apart from this case, the United
States, even if she herself were a belligerent, has no more rights in
the use of the Canal than her opponent or a neutral Power; on the
contrary, she is as much bound as these Powers to submit to the rules
of Article III, Nos. 2-6, of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty.

IV.

However this may be, the question as to whether the stipulation of
Article III, No. 1, of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty that vessels of all
nations shall be treated on the basis of entire equality is meant to
apply to vessels of all nations without exception, or only to the
vessels of _foreign_ nations and not to those of the United States, can
only be decided by an interpretation of Article III which takes the
whole of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty as well as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
into consideration.

(1) There is no doubt that according to the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty the
future Canal was to be open on like terms to the citizens of all
nations including those of the United States, for Article VIII
expressly stipulates "that the same canals or railways, being open to
the subjects and citizens of Great Britain and the United States on
equal terms, shall also be open on like terms to the subjects and
citizens of every other State which...."

(2) The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty has indeed been superseded by the
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, but it is of importance to notice the two facts,
expressed in the preamble of the latter:--(_a_) that the only motive
for the substitution of the latter for the former treaty was to remove
any objection which might arise under the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty to the
construction of the Canal under the auspices of the Government of the
United States; (_b_) that it was agreed that the general principle
of neutralisation as established by Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty should not be considered to be impaired by the new treaty. Now
the equal treatment of American, British, and any other nation's
vessels which use the Canal is part and parcel of the general principle
of neutralisation as established by Article VIII of the Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty, and such equal treatment must, therefore, be considered not to
have been impaired by Article III of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty.

(3) Article III of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty stipulate