England's Friendship

New York Times 100 years ago today, December 24, 1912:
Must Not Be Alienated by Selfish Treaty Violation.
To the Editor of The New York Times:
    You have always taken the side of right in the canal tolls question. The tearing up of a treaty to get rid of its obligations may be convenient at any given moment, but far-sighted diplomacy stops to calculate the future consequences. I think it is a matter of record that England has for many years done everything that was possible to maintain the best of relations with this country. In so doing it is a question if there were not moments when she almost sacrificed her own dignity as a world power. Her policy no doubt was to maintain a friendly attitude to a nation which had inherited many of her own traditions and institutions. In this country, when any cause for a divergence of opinion arose, the usual outcry of "We licked her before and we can do it again, " was the kind of return she received for yielding to the arrogance of inexperienced national youth.
    An article in your paper this morning written by Gen. Leonard Wood, Chief of Staff, calls attention to the fact that most of these "licking's" would have been disastrous to this country had it not been backed up by other nations. It has become the general opinion here that England has nothing more to offer than empty protests. This is a great mistake. Diplomats and statesmen of England are far too keen-sighted to go to war over the question of "tolls." That does not mean to say that they do not fail to realize that the so-called Monroe Doctrine is not worth the paper it is written upon without the backing of England. They know that they have only to side with other great military and naval powers to knock the said doctrine into a "corked hat." They know that there is a great and growing power on the other side of the Pacific Ocean that has very little respect for the said doctrine, and they also know that a day of reckoning could be brought about to balance the violation of treaties, which action, however, is not exactly suited to the age we live in. It must be further remembered that it will not be so many years before there is another power on this continent which has just offered to support the policies of the mother country with a very tangible proof of loyalty.
             A. G.
             New York, Dec. 23, 1912.