In his annual message of December 3, 1903, President Roosevelt said distinctly : "We do not guarantee any state against pun ishment if it misconducts itself, provided that punishment does not take the form of the acquisition of territory by any non-Amer ican power." In 1899 the American delega tion at the Peace Conference at The IIague made with reference to the convention pro viding for the new Court of Arbitration the following declaration : "Nothing contained in this convention shall be so construed as to require the United States of America to depart from its traditional policy of not in truding upon, interfering with, or entangling itself in the political questions or policy or internal administration of any foreign state; nor shall anything contained in the said con vention be construed to imply a relinquish ment by the United States of Ainerica of its traditional attitude toward purely American questions." The convention was' signed un der a reservation in accordance with this declaratiOn.
While the United States exercises a sort of wardship over the New World, it recognizes that circumstances may occur in which a foreign power may lawfully exact reparation from an American state; and so long as the reparation does not take the form of terri torial occupation, the United States will not interfere. T. J. Lawrence, Int. Law, 4th ed.,
282.
An international nuisance must be abated, and if European powers are not to be al lowed to do so in the case of an American state, the United States must do so. This may lead to a form of intervention, as in the case of San Domingo in 1904-1905, when an American receiver-general was appointed to collect the Dominican customs in order to insure the payment of foreign creditors. It is by an extension of the Mbnroe Doctrine that the United States justifies its qualified intervention in the domestic affairs of Mexi co. If foreign powers are not to be allowed to see to the protection of their citizens and their citizens' property, then the United States must itself undertake that duty. Moore, Int. Law Digest, VI, §§ 927-969. See The Nicaragua Question, by L. M. Keasbey; Reddaway, The Monroe Doctrine; Wharton's Dig. Int. Law.