PANAMA CANAL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 94, 18 October 1910, Page 3

PANAMA CANAL.

QUESTION OF FORTIFICATIONS. MR. ROOSEVELT'S LATEST. fFROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, 9th September. The Panama Canal will be open for the traffic of the world on Ist January, 1915, and the question of its fortification is at present a matter of controversy in the United States. Mr. Roosevelt, in charaeterisrtic fashion, has definitely declared for fortification. Speaking recently at Omaha, the ex -President said :—: — "We now have a further duty to perform in connection with it, and that is to fortify it. We are in honour bound to fortify it ourselves, and only by so doing can we effectively guarantee its neutrality, and, moreover, effectively guarantee that it shall not be used against us. The chief material advantage — certainly one of the chief material advantages — which we shall gain by its construction is the way in which it will, for defensive purposes, double the power of the United. States Navy. "To refuse to fortify it, and, above all, to consider for a moment such an act of utter weakness and folly as that of inviting other nations to step in and guarantee the neutrality of - this purely American work, and thereby really to make it certain that in the event of war we should find the Canal used against us, as our fleets -would be forbidden to pass through it or else our opponents' fleets permitted to do so, would be to incur, and quite rightfully, the contempt of the world. "It would mean the complete abandonment of the Monroe doctrine. It would be a wicked blow to our prestige on the Pacific, and, moreover, it would be in ite essence treason to the destiny of the Republic." ENGLAND'S POSITION. Great Britain has a special interest in the matter, and her position is one of uncertainty. Up to 1901 the British Government was undoubtedly opposed to the fortification of the Canal, when the United States entered into negotiations with this country with a view to removing any objections which might arise out of the old Clayton-Bulwer Treaty to the American construction of the Canal, an agreement was reached between Lord Pauneefote, the British Ambassador at Washington, and Mr. Hay, Secretary of State, which was signed- at Washington on sth February, 1900. By this Convention the United States undertook to maintain the neutrality of the Canal, and to keep it perpetually open to the world's commerce. More particularly the Canal was "never to be blockaded," and' "no fortifications were to be erected commanding the Canal or the waters adjacent." The Senate, however, refused to ratify the Convention in its original ; form, and added an amendment which I virtually left the United States free in time of war to close the Canal by armed force. The British Government refused to accept the Convention in its mutilated form, and the agreement fell to the ground. Negotiations were resumed, but whether the British Government gave "way or merely consented to waive the matter is not certain. At all events a new treaty was drawn up and signed on 18th November, 1901, and was finally ratified by the Senate. The principal points of difference between the new treaty and the one that fell through were the -withdrawal of Great Britain from the joint guarantee of the Canal, leaving the Un- ; ited States as sole guarantor, and, still I more important, the omission of the old provision respecting the right to fortify the Canal. At the time this omission •vyas regarded, rightly or wrongly, as deliberate, and as "leaving the right of fortification optional with the United States." FAMOUS ADMIRAL'S OPINION. Admiral Mahan thinks in the present state of America's military and naval preparations that the piercing of the isthmus is nothing but a disaster to the country. He believes that the new 'route will make the Caribbean Sea, in which i Europe has now but little mercantile in- ! terest, even more important than the j Mediterranean, and that England's West Indian possessions give her a position of great strategic strength, which would enable her to blockade these waters. Fortification alone is insufficient. The range of the most powerful battery does not exceed nine or ten miles. "Military positions, fortified posts,, however strongly and admirably situated," says Admiral Mahan, "do not confer control by themselves alone." The fortification of the Canal may, perhaps, be taken as foreshadowing the establishment of a naval base on the Canal for the Atlantic and Pacific squadrons of the United States.