A Second Canal

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30635, 29 December 1964, Page 8

A Second Canal

When the United States, at a cost of 380 million dollars, built the canal through the Isthmus of Panama, dividing continents and linking oceans. Lord Bryce described it as “ the greatest liberty Man “ has ever taken with Nature The canal was the direct result of a piece of diplomatic opportunism by the United States, which recognised revolutionary Panama, until 1903 a province of Colombia, as an independent State and signed a treaty “in “ perpetuity ” for the use of a 10-mile-wide zone. Relations with Panama have lately been less cordial than they were 60 years ago. Panama has sought revision of the treaty, not to take over the canal which is vital to its economy, but to obtain greater revenue from it and better wages and conditions for Panamanian canal workers. Though Panama is a badly-run country, unstable and corrupt, treaty revision is now in sight on a much more comprehensive basis than the 1955 concession which raised the annual rent for the zone from 250.000 dollars to 1.930,000 dollars. Much of the recent trouble in the zone can be attributed to the behaviour of the United States canal staff, which causes Panamanians to overlook the financial aid and public services provided by Americans. Now that the United States has declared its intention of building a second canal, the Government of Panama will certainly do all it can to prevent further disturbances. It is very much in Panama’s interest that the new canal should be within its borders; but that is by no means certain. When the new, sea-level canal is built, the present canal, more expensive and more complicated to operate because of the necessity for locks, will be a diminished asset But wherever the new canal is built—in Panama, in Colombia or in Nicaragua—it is not likely to- be managed on the onesided terms that have caused increasing friction over the old. Though the United States must find most of the money, the new canal will probably be a joint venture, controlled, perhaps, by the Organisation of American States. The fact that the present canal cannot accommodate hundreds of the largest ships afloat today is not the only reason for a new seaway. Traffic has doubled in the last 10 years and soon the canal will not be able to handle even the flow of smaller vessels. That makes the new enterprise of interest to all trading nations, including New Zealand, which has enjoyed the benefits of tolls unchanged since the canal was opened in 1914. The cost of a second canal will certainly be prodigious, though modem earthmoving equipment and possibly nuclear explosives will replace much of the vast human toil that created the first.