U.S. TO PLAN NEW ISTHMUS CANAL

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30629, 21 December 1964, Page 13

U.S. TO PLAN NEW ISTHMUS CANAL

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) WASHINGTON, December 18.

President Johnson made a surprise announcement today that the United States would “plan in earnest” to replace the Panama Canal with a sea-level channel linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

He also indicated that the United States might turn over control of the present Panama Canal zone to the Panamanian Government once a new canal was being used.

The President went before television cameras in the White House theatre to read his policy-setting statement that came 11 months and nine days after the outbreak of Panama violence in which 20 were killed and 200 injured. Noting that last January’s violence was triggered by disputes over the Canal Zone Treaty with Panama, President Johnson said the United States wanted to negotiate “an entirely new treaty on the existing Panama Canal.” Any new agreement, he said, should terminate automatically “when a sea-level canal comes into operation.” That presumably would mean termination of American control over the Canal Zone. He said there seemed to

be four possible routes for a new canal—two in Panama, one in Colombia and one through Nicaragua and perhaps, a corner of Costa Rica. Nuclear Explosives

President Johnson gave no cost estimates but experts estimated earlier this year that the price of a sea-level channel would range from 620 million dollars for one of the Panama routes to 1900 million dollars for the one through Nicaragua, providing nuclear explosives could be used for digging. Conventional explosives would be more costly. No fewer than 37 prospective routes have been considered for an alternative to the Panama Canal, but in recent years interest has centred on five of these. One across the isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico and the other four, now under review by the United States, which are shown on the map.

The idea of using atomic science for canal building was first mentioned in 1956 after the Suez crisis and studies were begun which developed into the United States Atomic Energy Commission’s Operation Plowshare. This was impeded by the 1961 nuclear test moratorium and under the 1963 test-ban agreement experiments may not be permitted.

The President gave no hint of when such a new canal might be completed but experts estimated the Panama canal would be hopelessly jammed by 1980.

He said: “Already more than 300 ships built or building are too big to go through with full loads.” Initial Panamanian reaction to the President’s announcement was favourable. Mr Humberto Calamari, one of Panama’s representatives in post-rioting negotiations with the United States, said of the proposal for a new treaty: “This is exactly what we had been hoping for.”

Mr Calamari predicted President Johnson’s proposal would lead to improved relations between the two countries.

American Government offi-

cials said disposition of the physical assets of the Panama Canal, once a replacement was being used, would present a real problem. They said American interest in the old canal, dating back to 1903, would then “be reduced to a negligible point.” President Johnson’s twopart announcement was regarded as a package proposal, with negotiations of a new Panama Canal treaty contingent on plans for pushing ahead of the sea-level waterway.

The statement did not say whether the new channel would be financed and controlled exclusively by the United States and officials said President Johnson deliberately did not want to foreclose any possibility, including a possible joint undertaking involving the United States and several other countries.