THE PANAMA CANAL.

Evening Star, Issue 24265, 5 August 1942, Page 4

THE PANAMA CANAL.

F chiming a link between tlio Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Panama Canal has been aptly called the hub-of Allied sea movements. Its security is essential to tlie cause of the United Nations, and having this fact in mind, the American Government is spending millions to defend and enlarge the' great artificial highway. It is pointed out that with America the main arsenal and chief source of production for the democratic nations engaged in the World War, the canal must be preserved at whatever cost. Ships going from New York to San Francisco using the waterway travel 5,262 miles. If the canal were blocked they would have to go via the Strait of Magellan, a distance of 13,135 miles. This is but one of thp distances that are cut down through the use of the canal, with the consequent saving of time and shipping space. The area for a width of five miles over the whole distance on either side of the canal is strongly fortified against any possible form of attack. Since the outbreak of war steps have been taken to strengthen the defences of the zone, on a scale hitherto never cohtemplated. To, provide additional safeguards, work began in the spring of 1941 on a third set of locks, which will in effect make an alternative passage through the canal if anything happens to the present locks To-day the canal is like p,- two-way highway—twin locks are side by side. Tho third set will be built at distances varying from 2,200 feet to a mile and a-half from the existing locks, thus creating a second channel. The new locks will, of course, be bombproof. Congress authorised their construction in 1939, ami the first appropriation came-in the summer of 1940. The amount of work is Monumental, and it was estimated that it would take five years to complete, though no_

doubt it will he speeded up under the urge of war needs. The main excavations will amount to over 50,000,000 cubic " yards; new towns to house the workers must bo built; Mirafloros Lake must be widened; the spillwoys must Ite strengthened. Whereas the original canal cost £75,000,000 as a whole, the now locks alone will cost £45,400,000. One proposal was that the United States should build a sea-level canal at Panama, which would dispense with locks, and thus bo less vulnerable to air attack. But a sea-level canal might take twenty years to build, and cost the terrific sum of £300,000,000.