NICARAGUA CANAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 156, 3 July 1937, Page 10

NICARAGUA CANAL.

CONSTRUCTION FLANS. Plans for the construction of a second ship canal across Central America, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. are being brought before Congress, Washington. The new canal would be made across Nicaragua, a scheme which has been urged by its supporters for some considerable time. It would be 17miles long, 70 miles of which would be a-mss Lake Nicaragua. The Panama Canal is only .">0 miles long. Engineers of the War Department estimate that the cost would be over £144.000.000 and that it would take 10 years to complete. Mr. Carl Vinson, chairman of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, considers that recent earthquakes in Central America and recurring landslides near the Panama Canal have raised fears thai natural disturbances or war-lime attacks might cripple the existing canal beyond repair in time of emergency. The alternative route would double national security and commerce. The I nited States secured perpetual, exclusive rights to construct a canal across Nicaragua !>y a treaty in IMI.V Later a Presidential com million set up to survey the projected waterway route.