Note 24 — NEUTRALITY.
Reading edition
The most important provisions of the treaty are the following:—
Article 1. The Suez Canal shall always be free and open whether in time of war or peace, for both merchant and war-ships, whatever flag they carry. The treaty-powers therefore decide that the use of this canal shall not be limited either in time of peace or war. The canal can never be blockaded.
Article 4. No fortifications which can be used for military operations against the Suez Canal, may be erected at any point which would command or menace it. No points which command or menace its entrance or course may be occupied in a military sense.
Article 5 provides that, although the Suez Canal shall be open in war-time, no belligerent action shall take place in its vicinity or in its harbours, or within a distance from its area which shall be determined by the international committee that watches over the canal.
Article 6 is a continuation of the foregoing and runs thus: In time of war none of the belligerent powers are permitted to land, or to take on board, ammunition or other war material, either in the canal or in its harbours.
Article 8. The powers are not allowed to keep any warship in the waters of the canal. But they may lay up war-ships in the harbours of Port Said and Suez to a number not exceeding two of any nation.
Article 9. The representatives in Egypt of the powers who signed the treaty shall be charged with seeing to its fulfilment. In all cases where free passage through the canal may be menaced, they shall meet upon the summons of the senior member to investigate the facts. They shall acquaint the Khedive's Government with the danger anticipated, that it may take the measures needful to secure the safety and unimpeded use of the canal. They shall meet regularly once a year to ascertain that the treaty is properly observed. They shall most especially require the deposition of all works and dispersion of all collections of troops which on any part of the area of the canal might either design or cause a menace to the free passage or to the security thereof.
Article 10 treats of the obligations of the Egyptian Government and runs thus:—
The Egyptian Government shall, so far as its power by firman goes, take the measures necessary for enforcing the treaty. In case the Egyptian Government has not adequate means it shall apply to the Sublime Porte, which will then consult with the other signatories of the London treaty of March 17, and with them make provision in response to that application.
Article 14 sets forth: Beyond the duties expressed and stipulated for in the paragraphs of this treaty, the sovereign rights of his Imperial Majesty the Sultan are in no way curtailed, nor are the privileges and rights of his Highness the Khedive as defined by the firman.