Page 111 - The interest of America in sea power, present and future

9 2 The Isthmus and Sea Power.

article, the eighth, was incorporated in the
treaty to this effect, stating expressly that the
wish of the two governments was " not only
to accomplish a particular object, but to estab-
lish a general principle."
Considerable delay ensued in the restoration
of the islands and of the Mosquito Coast to
Honduras and Nicaragua, — a delay attended
with prolonged discussion and serious mis-
understanding between the United States and
Great Britain. The latter claimed that, by the
wording of the treaty, she had debarred herself
only from future acquisitions of territory in
Central America ; whereas our government
asserted, and persistently instructed its agents,
that its understanding had been that an entire
abandonment of all possession, present and
future, was secured by the agreement. It is
difficult, in reading the first article, not to feel
that, although the practice may have been per-
haps somewhat sharp, the wording can sustain
the British position quite as well as the more
ingenuous confidence of the United States
negotiator ; an observation interesting chiefly
as showing the eagerness on the one side,
whose contention was the weaker in all save