Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1939. THE SUEZ CANAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 163, 12 June 1939, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, JUNE 12, 1939. THE SUEZ CANAL.

A YJGOHOrs reply has been made by the chairman of the Suez ( anal Company to the Italian (daims regarding the future control of this great waterway. Her conquest of Abyssinia has given Italy a much greater interest in the Canal and she naturally seeks a voice in its management, without full consideration of the rights or otherwise of the demand. The company is predominantly Drench with its 21 directors of tliis nationality against Britain’s 10 and one Dutch. Yet the British Government has a holding of 44 per cent. To the Italian demands for representation on the management the chairman unequivocally said the company’s policy would not be changed, and'a deaf ear would be turned to unjust criticism and empty threats. There is much to be said in support of this view and little if anything for the Italian, which is being put forward in the manner now associated with such requests from the Dictator States. It is worthy of note that the agreement between Britain and Italy announced their intention to abide by the Suez Canal Convention of 1888, which guarantees Hie free, use of Hie waterway to the East both in peace and war. Its defence is a matter of supreme importance to Britain. Eor this reason she takes a responsible share. For some time now Egyptian policy has been directed towards making the State competent to perform this duty, but that day is yet a long way off. The idea of a canal linking the Red and Mediterranean Seas goes back over many .centuries. Raineses, the. Pharaoh of the Oppression, began a canal from tile Nile to the Red Sea, which, covered by centuries of sand, was unearthed during digging operations for the Suez Canal. When Persia conquered Egypt the Pharaoh’s work was completed by Darius, who conceived the idea of ultimately connecting it with the Persian Gulf. But the sand obliterated bis work. The lloman Trojan next took a hand when he impelled and repaired Darius’s waterway, only for the relentless sand to again take charge. Others followed as the years passed, but none of their dreams were realised, and it was left to the Frenchman de Lesseps to make the waterway that now

links the two seas. It was in the spring l of 18G9 that the waters ironi the Mediterranean, entered the Bitter Lakes, and in the autumn of the same year the isthmus was pierced to enable the Bed Sea for the first time to mingle with the Mediterranean. But it is from a Briton that do Lesseps said he got his idea of cutting the isthmus. This was the naval engineer. Lieutenant Waghorn, who.amid unbelievable hardships in 1811 established the Alexandria Suez Overland Boute, linking the Mediterranean Sea, which was in operation till the opening of the Canal in 18G9. It was six years later that Disraeli achieved his famous and dramatic coup in acquiring for Britain, in the face of strong opposition, the shares which Ismail Bey, the bankrupt of Khedive of Egypt who made the opening of the waterway an occasion of great splendour, was ready to offer to European Powers. There is a statue of Lieutenant AVaghorn at Port Tewfik, erected by de Lesseps himself, and if was but right that in later years Britain should gain the shares which have meant so much to her influence and

prestige. The concession to the company lias less than thirty years to run, and Egypt is determined to preserve her rights to the Canal, but the Convention of 1888 will not be abrogated. Whether Italy will have a direct share in the management before then is a question which the future only can answer.