ST. LAWRENCE. SEAWAY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 7 December 1940, Page 5

ST. LAWRENCE. SEAWAY

ROOSEVELT PRESSING FOR CONSTRUCTION NECESSITY FOR DEFENCE [U.P.A.-By Electric Telegraph-Copyright) DETROIT, sth December. President Roosevelt has announced bv letter that ho will press the n/w Congress for the immediate construcion of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence seaway and power project, which will be comparable in economic value with the Panama Canal, and is regarded as a vital necessity for national defence.

A Washington oablegram dated 14th October said that the State Department had announced that the United States and Canada had taken preliminary steps toward the development of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence basin project. They agreed to an immediate exchange of the use of waters to assist in providing an adequate supply of power to meet the Canadian defence needs. The exchange of waters would permit Canada to use additional water to generate power at Niagara. The St. Lawrence seaway plan is of v"*t dimensions. Its successful completion would mean that Canada and T . T ’ I:^GC * StcU es would share the use o’ 2600 miles of channel for oceangoing vessels and the complementary hydro-electricity scheme would mean, according to one authority, the production of 2,200,000 horse-power to be divided between the partners in the undertaking. The waterway project is to provide a channel for ocean-going Voss' from the St. Lawrence river to the Great Lakes, which are already united by canals and already carrying an enormous trade. In 1929. a peak year, 110,000.000 tons of cargo passed through the channels connecting Lakes Huron an' Erie, compared with 34.000.000 through the Suez Canal. When the remaining barrier to traffic by large vessels between the Great Lakes and the sea ’s eliminated the huge volume of commer. _ centred in the great American industrial cities round the Great Lakes will have an outlet to the sea which is expected to be of great value.