Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1996

A wholly proprietary solution for administering the Suez Canal written in the first critical weeks following Nasser’s take-over, when the world was in shock and many were looking to Britain to move against Egypt with armed force. Heath sent out a small trial mailing from a Who’s Who with this proprietary, non-political solution and received an unheard-of response of 25 percent, all favorable. By then, it was too late to send a larger mailing because the matter had been handled politically and the crisis had passed. But extracts from some of the responses are attached to this Item. This was an example of applied socionomy which could be used for other canals such as the Panama should need ever arise.

 

Original is missing.

 

 

SOLUTION FOR THE SUEZ

     The Suez impasse is a political problem, so recognized by all, a problem not of property but of ex-appropriation. Its solution depends on the re-estab­lishment of proprietary administration under a wholly non-political ownership that will benefit all parties and that all will feel themselves bound to respect.

 

     The following rough and general outline looks to a proprietary ownership and administration of the Canal under which the particular interests of all parties, in­cluding Egypt, would be safe-guarded and the world-interest well served.

 

     The eighteen or more governments, including Egypt, who are most interested could invite the leading ship­ping interests who use the Canal to form a Canal Owners Corporation to be chartered by each one and all of these governments, including Egypt, with powers and limitations to be agreed upon by them, including, first of all, recognition and respect by all parties of the present sole sovereignty of the Government of Egypt over the territory occupied by the Canal.

 

     The great shipping interests, or a large part of them, might well agree, upon condition of no discrimination against any would-be user of the Canal, to estab­lish a new corporation in which all would hold shares proportionate to their several contributions to it. These contributions would constitute a fund wherewith to purchase from the present or recently expropriated owners of the Canal their entire outstanding equity rights in the property. The new Corporation could be formed upon the express agreement and consent of all the sovereign powers, including Egypt, avowing high interest and concern for the free and open and non-discriminatory use of the Canal and upon agreement by the Corporation to provide the services of the Canal to all the world alike on equal terms. Such agreement could become part of a solemn covenant by and between all the interested governments and with the new Corpora­tion — a covenant of non-aggression against any of the tangible or intangible properties and rights of the new Corporation as chartered by them all.

 

     The interested governments, in consideration of absolutely non-discriminatory use of the Canal by them­selves and all nationals under them, would thus relin­quish all present or future claim to any sole or separate sovereignty or control over the Canal. However, the Government of Egypt, in consideration of its ac­ceptance of equal joint sovereignty with all the other interested governments, in exchange for its present separate sovereignty over the territory of the Canal, should be paid, in part immediately and the remainder serially, out of funds of or raised by the new Corpora­tion, a fixed sum to be agreed upon by and between the Government of Egypt and the new Corporation. These payments could be guaranteed by all the other interest­ed governments, either outright or proportionately. The cost, doubtless, would be enormous, but not more so than the advantages.

 

     Established in this manner, the new Corporation would come not into sovereign but into a guaranteed proprietary jurisdiction over the Canal, with the right and duty to police and defend its properties, but over which, in the interest both of itself and of its patrons, it could exercise none but proprietary and not any coercive or non-contractual administration. It could take its place in the world as a productive enterprise, solvent and profitable out of the voluntary revenues that its high services to its patrons would command. Free from assessments and encroachments against its properties and from exactions out of its revenues, it could become enormously profitable and thereby able not only to maintain the Canal but to improve and extend it in all respects and directions as its present or prospective world patronage might justify or require. The Corporation might make such profits that it could du­plicate the Canal. This would allow for one-way traffic both ways and much more than double its present capacity both to serve and to earn.

 

     As a highly productive and profitable business corporation, solvent and stable, its shares would come into very wide demand, its ownership international to the ends of the earth, especially among those persons and corporations most engaged in commerce among the nations and thus most interested in the operation and extension of this very important and essential facility for it.

 

     n arrangement such as here outlined would serve and support the great objects avowed by all. To the interested governments:  1. The open, free and non­discriminatory use of the Canal. 2. The avoidance of any measures provocative of war. 3. No compromise of sovereignty by the interested governments. To the Govern­ment of Egypt: 1. Full recognition of its present exclusive sovereignty over the territory occupied by. An adequate and acceptable but certain and specific money recom­pense, in lieu of uncertain revenues and heavy and unaccustomed the Canal. 2. Exchange of its now precarious sole sove­reignty for a guaranteed joint sovereignty, guaranteed and protected not by the power of Egypt alone but by all of the interested governments. 3responsibilities. 4. A pattern and prece­dent for the acquisition of further great recompenses and revenues from similar proprietary regional authori­ties in other great public projects such as (possibly) development of the Nile.

 

Spencer Heath

 

 

THE SCIENCE OF SOCIETY FOUNDATION, INC., 1502 Montgomery Road, Baltimore 27, Maryland, is an educational organization dedicated to knowledge of the voluntary institutions of mankind.

 

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     There is no recognition of sovereignty so impressive, especially to a have-not government, as an offer to purchase a portion of it. Louisiana, Florida, Alaska all witness this. Sovereignty was relinquished for immediate gain. They were bargains in the eyes of all concerned.

     There is a common interest of all parties and powers enough to motivate joint action: The free use and service of the Canal, equal and impartial to all. Egypt needs money. All need the Canal. She would do well to sell her sole sovereignty, backed only by her own force, in exchange for an equal joint sovereignty backed by the solemn compact of all and sweetened with more money than Nasser can ever hope to get in any other way.

     An owning and managing corporation, chartered by each and all and guaranteed by each and all the full freedom to earn, save and serve, without molestation of any kind, would be a truly Free Enter­prise, serving all the world on equal terms to the enrichment of all, without menace of war and, no sovereignty impugned.

 

 

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SOLUTION FOR THE SUEZ

Extracts from Responses Received

 

 

I have read your plan with great interest and appreciation. If I may say so you are to be praised for having devoted so much thought and ingenuity to the subject, and I will certainly pass on the result.

                            Lord Robert Gilbert Vansittart

 

 

Your plan seems eminently sensible.

                            Aldous Huxley

 

 

I haven’t the slightest question about that plan of yours. It seems to me that it is the most sensible one possible and that if the people who run Egypt now are sensible, they will regard it, as you say in your last page, as a bargain.

Crane Brinton

Harvard University

 

 

I think the plan one very much worthy of consideration.

                            M. F. Ashley Montagu

 

 

It seems to me not merely well presented, but logical and persuasive.

                            Felix Morley

 

I have passed it around to members of our organization who have expressed interest and seemed to think that your proposal is reasonable.

                            Graham DuShane

                            American Association for the                                   Advancement of Science

 

 

I thought your program practical and will take advantage of your suggestion to use in discussions of that problem here, which you may be sure engages a good deal of our attention.

                            Hon. Peter Grimm

                            United States Ambassador

                            Rome, Italy

 

 

I am looking for the best method to place it in the hands of interested people.

                            Dr. Ludwig von Mises

                            New York University

 

 

I read your “SOLUTION FOR THE SUEZ” with great interest. I trust that you are exercising your influence on your own government, whose role is obviously vital in the matter, in favor of your solution.

                            Dr. William E. Rappard, President

                            Institut Universitaire de

                            Hautes Etudes Internationales

                            Geneva, Switzerland

 

 

I think it merits serious attention

J. Donald Adams

New York Times Book Review

 

 

I was indeed interested in your approach, which I think a very creative and constructive one.

                            Donald Harrington, President

                            United World Federalists

 

I was indeed interested in your approach, which I think a very creative and constructive one.

Zay Jeffries Vice President

General Electric Company

 

 

Thank you for your admirable outline for the Suez Canal settlement. I believe that some such solution will have to be found, and I will draw the attention of anyone who may aid in the purpose to your proposals.

                            Gerald Heard

 

 

Your plan would give Egypt the rights which she deserves and would at the same time guarantee freedom of use by other nations. It needs the proper publicity.

Rev. Walter Donald Kring

Unitarian Church, New York City

 

 

I think that your idea is excellent.

                            Vivien Kellems

 

 

I wish that the contentious parties were sensible enough to accept it.

Dean Clarence E. Manion

Notre Dame Law School

 

 

I have read it carefully. It makes good sense.

Dr. Howard E. Kershner, President

Christian Freedom Foundation

 

 

Your suggestion about the Suez Canal is very interesting. I am going to pass your piece on to a few others and see what they think.

 

James C. Ingebretsen, President

Mobilization for Spiritual Ideals

 

 

This is a fine application of Citadel, Market and Altar to a pressing problem. Congratulations.

                            Lyle H. Munson                                                The Bookmailer