PANAMA CANAL

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1924, Page 7

PANAMA CANAL

VULNERABLE TO ATTACK

U.S. NAVAL MANOEUVRES

SHOW VALUE OF BATTLESHIPS.

(DJIITIP FRK.SS ASSOCIATION.— COMIUaHT.)

(AUSTBAUAM-NEW ZKALAND CABLB ASSOCIATION ) NEW YORK, 24th January. The "New York Times" Colon correspondent says that the Board of Naval and Army Umpires,, following four days' manoeuvres off the Panama Canal by the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, which were divided into so-called "enemy" and "defending" armadas,, decided that the canal was extremely vulnerable to attack, and unless 30,000,000 dollars was provided for defences, the United States would be unable to save this important thoroughfare from easy destruction by an enemy Power in time of war. The manoeuvres, which were the most extensive in American history, were a mimic war, wherein the army, land defences, air force, and every branch of the navy participated.

The board, moreover, indicated that the battleship had demonstrated active usefulness, the manoeuvres showing that while fast destroyers and submarines and aiiplanes are indispensable, the important unit of modern sea power remains indisputably the battleship.