THE PANAMA CANAL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 274, 18 November 1910, Page 4

THE PANAMA CANAL.

The report that the Panama Canal wfll be opened for traffic in about three years' time at least suggests that this great undertaking is approaching completion. By the time that it is finished the Americans will have spent at least £100,000,000 upon, it; hut if it justifies anticipations, it will be well worth the outlay. To the "United States Government the value of the canal will be not only that it offers splendid oommercial facilities for trade between the Atlanr tic and the Pacific, hut that it will provide means for the co-operation of the American fleets that will double their naval strength. When the Canal is once opened, the United States .will be secure against any conceivable form of naval aggression. At the same time, the new waterway between the two oceans should •have the effect of promoting and developing American sea-borne commerce to an unparalleled extent. Incidentally, the Canal •will give New Zealand and Australia a new direct route to England, which will certainly facilitate our commercial relations with the Old World. But the Panama Canal will naturally make more difference to the Americans than to us, and it is to be ohserved that the United States authorities are already considering certain practical questions of great importance which the opening of the Canal will force upon their notice. One question is the fortification of the Canal; for though the Canal zone ds theoretically to be neutral territory, it is not to 'be expected that the Americans will be prepared to leave their navies defenceless while passing through from one ocean to the other. Another question is the commercial control of the Canal; and this is, indeed, a matter of national interest. For dt is asserted, apparently on good grounds, that the great railway companies, which 'have a monopoly of the -trans-comtinen-al traffic, are resolved not to allow the Canal to compete with them; and with this object they have for a long time past operated lines of steamers from San Francisco to Panama, which, by manipulating freights, have prevented the east coast ports, from taking any Share of the trade away from the railways hy sea. It is confidently predioted that unless Congress intervenes the railway companies will pursue 'the same policy when the Canal is finished; and it will be manifestly the duty of the American Govern'memt to prevent this great national undertaking from heing exploited for the selfish purposes of those unscrupulous (monopolists who have already secured so firm a grip upon the fortunes and the •liberties of the American people.