GERMAN CANAL SYSTEM.

A THREAT TO HOLLAND

(N.Z. Herald Correspondent.)

4v LONDON, Aug. 16. The German programme of expansion consolidation seems once more to have come into, conflict with Dutch interests, this time in connection with the traffic on the Rhine, which ia perhaps the greatest inland waterway of Europe.

According to thei Berlin correspondent of the Daily Mail, who claims to be well-informed: "For some time the Irerman Government has been endeavoring ~to obtain the sanction of the Dutch Government to a scheme of tolls on Rhine-borne traffic. Although the great part, of the Rhine is German territory, and carries the vast wealth of Westphalia, the lower por-. tion of the river flows through Holland and is Dutch territory. The freedom of traffic on the Rhine has been undisputed since 1868, when the last vestige of a toll disappeared, and the river was thrown open without restriction to the trade of all nations.

.. . . This treaty was signed by Prussia, France, and other Powers, and the management of the channel and navigation is vested in a central committee formed by members for Alsaoe, Lorraine, Baden, Bavaria, Hesse, Prussia, and Holland. "Germany proposes to abrogate this treaty, and to impose tolls. In the hope of overcoming the opposition of Holland the German Government threatens to divert the Rhine traffic by means of a canal, which will give direct access from the German Rhine to .the North Sea. This would not be difficult, seeing that there already exists a canal between Emden and the Rhine above Dusseldorfi This canal is known as the Dortmund-Ems Canal, and its extension connects the greaii industrial and mining centre of Westphalia with the port of Emden and the North Sea. It is. 99ft broad at the water level, and B£ft deep, so thai vessels of 800 tons are able to pass.

"Germany threatens practically to kill tlie Rhine as a channel for traffic between Rotterdam and the heart of the Continent unless Holland abandons her opposition to the German scheme for burdening river shipping with heavy tolls?. The scheme also provides for transferring the control of the Rhine, including the Dutch section, to an 'international board/ in which the balance of power will be vested in the German States bordering on the river.

Holland has been given to understand that if she remains obdurate Orermany is prepared to construct a great new shjp canal between Cologne and Emden, a distance of about 200 miles. The object and effect of such a waterway would be to paralyse the trade of Rotterdam and raise Emden to an importance rivalling that of Hamburg 3n d Bremen. Antwerp would also be affected; although the project has been hatched more with a view to bringing pressure on Hoi-

land than on Belgium. Antwerp has the largest share in exporting Rhineshipped goods, but Rotterdam receives almost twice as large a bulk of imported goods. The HamburgAmerican and North German Lloyd Companies already possess dock, warehouse., arid harbor facilities a,t Emden, which are capable of unlimited extension should the canal project ever be carried out."