VULNERABLE.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17981, 26 January 1924, Page 13

VULNERABLE.

THE PANAMA CANAL.

EASY PREY TO ENEMY.

(ET CA3LE—PItESS ASSOCIATION* COPTIUGHT.) (AUSTEALIAN AND K._. CABLE ASSOCIATIOX.)

(Received January 25tli, 7.20 p.m.)

NEW YORK, January 24.

Tho Colon correspondent of the ''New York Times" says that a Boaro of naval and army umpires, following four days' manoeuvres oil the Panama Canal, the Atlantic and Pacific fleets being divided into so-called enemy and defending armadas, decided that tha canal was extremely vulnerable to attack.

The umpires state that unless 30,000,01)0 dollars be provided for defences, the United States will be unable to save the important thoroughfaro from easy destruction by aii enemy Power in time of war.

The manoeuvres, which were the most extensive in American history, wero a mimic war in which the Army and land defences, the Air Force and every branch of the Navy participated. The Board moreover indicated that tho dreadnought' demonstrated its active usefulness in the manoeuvres, showing that, while fast destroyers and submarines and aeroplanes are indispensable and important, the unit of modern sea power remains indisputably the dreadnought.