A SECOND PANAMA CANAL

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 301, 14 September 1921, Page 5

A SECOND PANAMA CANAL

RIVAL .ROUTE.

It is being proposed that the American continent should be cut through again. Th®--i}re<>ent Panama Canal is used by an ever-incregsing number of ships, and all the authorities are agreed that in fifteen years’ time it will be quite-inade-quate for the world’s commerce. This being the case, either the present canal must be greatly widened, or a second canal must bo > cut, and the general opinion of the experts leans to the cutting of a new canal. This would’ have to be much larger than tho present waterway, and such n gigantic undertaking wriuld occupy a number of years, s<> it is suggested that' work should bo begun at once. But two old controversies have broken out with renewed vigour. Tho first is as to where the new canal should bte cut, and the second as to whether a <'.ann.l with locks or a sea-level channel is the. better.

. There are many disadvantages in «■ canal like the present one, where ships' from ocean to ocean have to go up and down stairs by means of a series of huge locks. Much time is wasted in this way. With a sea-level canal navigation would be much' more rapid. On the other hand, there are points in which a stei-level canal is at a disadvantage. The excavation of the channel is a far more formidable and costly undertaking than that of ,a lock canal, awing to the greater quantity of material 'that has to be dug out. Then, of course, the greater the depth excavated the more serious the consequences of any possible landslide) Not only would a greater depth have to be excavated, but tho slope of rhe banks would have to Ire far more gradual than at the Culebra Cut in the Panama Canal, and this would mean still more material to be dug away.

It is now generally agreed by experts that the French made a mistake in not avoiding tho massive basalt rocks at Culebra and Gold' Hills, a mistake perpetuatedl by the Americans. Basalt rock is soon weathered, and breaks up into stones and sand,( and this means that landslides are frequent. There is a possibility that, instead of making a, second canal at. Panama, the Nicaraguan route may Ire followed. This was the original plan of the Americans before they took over the French works ‘nt Panama, and ns far back as 182 G u survey was undertaken there on behalf of a British company. In July, 1850, j). treaty, known as the Clnyton-Bulwcr Treaty, was signed by Great Britain and the United States, settling tho principles that were io govern the construction and operation of a Ni; caraguan canal, and in 1889 such a canal was actually begun. Later it was aliandoned in favour oi tho Panama route, but now the likelihood of a. Nicaraguan canahbeing cut is very great. The total length from Greytown, in the Atlantic, to San Juan del Snr, in the Pacific, via Lake Nicaragua, would be 183 miles, as compared with tho 49 miles of the Panama Canal, but nearly 50 miles would be in tho free, deep waters of the lake.

Owing to climatic causes ships would have to spend 43 hours more on tho Nicaraguan route than by way of Panama, but against this tho distance to Sn.n Francisco and New York from tho ends of tho Nicaraguan Canal would bo 500 miles shorter than from the ends of tho Panama Canal.