It is well known that Belgium and Holland have since
the War been negotiating for a new waterways treaty to replace the waterways clauses of the Treaty of 1839 which are no longer fully applicable to modern conditions. The relevant documents are set out in a Grey Book now published by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and deserve the attention of shipowners and shippers doing business with Antwerp as well as of students of foreign policy. In 1925 M. Karnebeek, the Dutch Foreign Minister, who is well known as an authority on the international law of waterways, succeeded in coming to an agreement with the Belgians. But he was thrown over by the Dutch Chambers and had to resign, so that the very elaborate treaty which he had drafted remains a dead letter. The question is far too complex to be discussed here ; it cannot be understood without charts. But it involves the construction of a long new canal across Dutch territory from the Scheldt to the Lower Rhine, and it implies a great deal of good will on both sides and the cessation of these local jealousies between Antwerp and Rotterdam which date from the sixteenth century and are still all too potent.
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