The idea of international neutralization is not without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity. It was born out of the downfall of Napoleon I. The Treaty of Paris of 1815 declared that
the neutrality and inviolability of Switzerland, as well as its independence of outside influences, are in conformity with the true interests of European politics.
The Congress of Vienna, held afterwards in the same year, at which there were present, besides the various monarchs, such men as Wellington, Talleyrand, and Metternich, solemnly and finally reiterated that declaration. Would not “the neutrality and inviolability” of the Philippines be gladly acceded to by the great Powers as being “in conformity with the true interests of European politics,” and Asiatic politics as well?
Says M. De Martens, in an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes for November 15, 1903:
Respect for the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland has now taken such lodgment in the conscience of the civilized nations of Europe that its violation would inevitably provoke a storm of indignation.
At present, the Philippines are a potential apple of discord thrown into the Balance of Power in the Pacific. The present policy of indefinite retention by us, with undeclared intention, leaves everybody guessing, including ourselves. Now is the accepted time, while the horizon of the future is absolutely cloudless, to ask Japan to sign a treaty agreeing not to annex the Philippine Islands after we give them their independence. By her answer she will show her hand. The overcrowded monarchies do not pretend any special scruples about annexing anything annexable. Germany very frankly insists that she became a great Power too late to get her rightful share of the earth’s surface, and that she must expand somewhither. And only the virile menace of the Monroe Doctrine has so far stayed her heavy hand from seizing some portion of South America. But probably none of the Powers would object to converting the Philippines into permanently neutral territory, by the same kind of an agreement that protects Switzerland.
The Treaty of London of 1831, relative to Belgium and Holland, declares:
Within the limits indicated, Belgium shall form an independent and perpetually neutral state. She shall be required to observe this same neutrality toward all the other states.
The signatories to this treaty were Great Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia. Forty years after it was made, during the Franco-Prussian war, when Belgium’s neutrality was threatened by manifestations of intention on the part both of France and of Prussia to occupy some of her territory, England served notice on both parties to the conflict that if either violated the territorial integrity of Belgium, she, England, would join forces with the other. And the treaty was observed. The specific way in which observance of it was compassed was this: Great Britain made representations to both France and Germany which resulted in two identical conventions, signed in August, 1870, at Paris and Berlin, whereby any act of aggression by either against Belgium was to be followed by England’s joining forces with the other against the aggressor. So long as human nature does not change very materially, “the green-eyed monster” will remain a powerful factor in human affairs. The mutual jealousy of the Powers will always be the saving grace, in troubled times, of neutralization treaties signed in time of profound peace. If “Balance of Power” considerations in Europe have protected the Turkish Empire from annexation or dismemberment all these years, without a neutralization treaty, why will not the mutual jealousy of the Powers insure the signing and faithful observance of a treaty tending to preserve the Balance of Power in the Pacific? Who would object?
The Panama Canal is to be opened in 1913. We want South America to be a real friend to the Monroe Doctrine, which she certainly is not enthusiastic about now, and will never be while we remain wedded to the McKinley Doctrine of Benevolent Assimilation of unconsenting people—people anxious to develop, under God, along their own lines. In 1906, while Secretary of State of the United States, Mr. Root made a tour of South America. He told those people down there, at Rio Janeiro, by way of quieting their fears lest we may some day be moved to “improve” their condition also, through benevolent assimilation and vigorous application of the “uplift” treatment: