NICARAGUAN CANAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 195, 31 May 1938, Page 3

NICARAGUAN CANAL.

DISCUSSED ONCE MORE. The naval expansion programme and the tense situation in the Far East are attracting attention of authorities to the project of a Nicaraguan canal, says the “New York Times.” Testimony of navy officials before the House Naval Affairs Committee and the statement of Admiral Leahy that the United States Elect is not capable of defending both the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts have increased interest in the proposal. Chairman Vinson of the House Naval Affairs Committee, told that body that “the navy's eggs are all in one basket —the Panama Canal—and at some time in the future we may be compelled to build a sea-level canal somewhere in Central America.” Army and navy officers believe the canal is necessary to supplement the Panama Canal for speedy transfer of the fleet from one ocean to tlio other. They hold, in addition,, that the new canal would have economic reason to be built. Engineer’s Viewpoint. Colonel Dan I. Sultan, now in the army engineers’ office for the District of Columbia and former chairman ol a commission authorised hv Congress to survey the Nicaraguan route, holds that “the importance ol constructing: a Nicaraguan canal with regard to the security of the United States is great, and might he vital.” Colonel Sultan said that the cost would he in the neighbourhood of 722,000,000 dollars.

ft would'take ten years to build after allowing five years tor negotiating the necessary treaties and passing the required legislation, or a total ol fiitoon years, he believes. The canal would he about IST miles long. However, about seventy miles of this would be through Lake Nicaragua, thirty-eight miles would require no excavation and the rest little excavation. Tt would ho a sea-level route, comparatively, but would require locks though not such extensive ones as the Panama Canal. The canal would have time for vessels engaged in inter-coastal traffic, Colonel Sultan said.

Representative Tzac, Democrat. California, has introduced a Bill providing from the construction of a Nicaraguan canal. He estimates tlie cost at 300,000.000 dollars (£75,000,000).