DEFENCE PROJECTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24836, 9 February 1942, Page 6

DEFENCE PROJECTS

ROADS AND RAILWAY UNITED STATES AND MEXICO HUGE PROGRAMME . ANNOUNCED (Rec ; 6.30 p.m.) NEW YORK. Feb. 7. "Contracts will soon be issued to United States construction companies for a vast railway and road-building project in Mexico, which will be financed by additional American loans," says the Mexico City correspondent of the New York Times. " The plan involves 4000 miles of highways and about 1000 miles' of railways, and will be rushed to completion. because the United States military authorities view it as a defensive necessity!" The programme, which is estimated to cost 178,000,000 dollars, is expected to be completed in "two years. A PanAmerican highway will be completed from Mexico City to the Guatemala border, and another long highway will be built through lower California from Ehsenada to Lapaz to facilitate west coast defence by mobile forces The War. Department approved of an international Alaska defence highway, and the scheme was submitted to-day to the House of Representatives Roads Committee by Colonel Tulley, of the Army General Staff. The proposed, highway will run through northwestern Canada and link American and Canadian routes with the Richardson highway. It: will cost 25,000,000 dollars.