GERMANY’S INSIDIOUS PLAN.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7920, 18 August 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

GERMANY’S INSIDIOUS PLAN.

LINKING HAMBURG AND CONSTANTINOPLE.

GREAT WATERWAYS SCHEME.

It was with a very clear end' in view that Germany incorporated in her prodigious plan of war a scheme to link up Hamburg and Constantinople with such a scheme of waterways as should even enable small warships to pass through Europe from one city to the other. Th#t is one reason why she tights 80 doggedly to maintain her supremacy in the Balkans. The Pan-German dream is the key and kernel of all Teuton policy. It may bo a stupid and impossible poliqy, but all the weight of German arms is behind it. On that policy this article from the “New York Times” s>hed!s still more light. •.

i G ERMANY has a tremendous project tor linking her great rivers with Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, and thus providing water communication, independent of hostile neighbours, with those countries. By means’ of a network of canals and riven Germans hope that eventually one of their gunboats may enter a North Boa harbour, thread its iway bf/ river and canal to the Danube, and, descending that great stream past Austrian, Hungarian, Serbian, Rumanian and Bulgarian shores, emerge finally upon the Black Sea and terminate its voyage at Constantinople. There must be dbubts nowadays in the minds' of those advocating this gigantic scheme as to how the four countrie» involved in it will be constituted after the war, and whether they will remain in the same relations of close alliance, but, despite this, the plans for the network of inland waterways are resolutely advocated. A comprehensive account of this remarkable project, in its various ramifications, us contributed by Leo Allen Bergholz, United States Consul-General at Dresden, in a report 6ent early this year to the Department of Commerce at Washington. From his report the outline given below is taken. THE CANAL SYSTEM. Already there are in existence in Ger% many numerous canals joining ' the great rivers of the empire which penetrate German territory for hundreds of mile.?. But the indispensable links by which navigation between the North and Black Seas would be made possible are still things of the future. To make such navigation possible, the Rhine, flowing into the North Sea near Rotterdam, and the Elbe, flowing into the North Sea below Hamburg—or else one of the two —must be with the Danube, whitih empties into the Black Sea through various Mouths in the Dobrudja region, wrestda lrnst Autumn by the forces under M&ckensen from the Rumanians and still in the hands ot the Central Powers. There exist-, to be sure, a link connecting the Danube with the Main, an affluent of tlie Rhine,, hut it is 'hopelessly out of aate and wholly inadequate to tho demands of present-day commerce. This is tlie Ludwig Canal in Bavaria, built between 1836 and 1845, which may oe navigated by freight boats of not more than 125 tons. There is a, project to widen this canal, in order to provide for boatsi of 1000 tons. But those behind tlie great inland vvatenway project which’ is now agitating Germany look elsewhere for their connecting link in the system. They have in contemplation three schemes for joining the Elbe with the Danube. Of these the most practical technically is that which provides for a canal via -uenlik and Pardubitz in Bohemia, and thenco branching eastward to link up " ith projected 1 canal from the River Oder to the Danube. THE NEEDED- LINK. Were this canal built, access) would be provided from tlie Black Sea, likewise from all the river ports along the Danube, and the Baltic (via the Oder), or the North Sea (via the Elbe). But this does not by any means exhausttile ambitious plans of the German canal projectors. By the construction of another canal, from the Elbe in the vicinity pi Magdeburg,, to. Hanover, already connected with the We-ser and the Rhine, they aim to make it. possible for vessels coming from the-Black Sea and the Danube ports to ply past Hanover into either the Rhine, which will take them to Cologne, and! thence through Dutch teriitoqv to Rotterdam, or into tho Weser, which will enable thorn to reach the North Sea at Bremen without leaving Germany. In addition t to the projected Oder-

Elbe-Danube canal, by way of Menlik and Pardubitz, there are two other alternative projects for connecting the Elbe and Danube. One which would be shorter than that already described, would be along the Moldau -past Budweis to the Danube near Lmz; the other, via Budweis to the Danube near Kronenburg. But these last two propositions are rendered impracticable by the difference of level to be overcome and the number of lock&i that would have to be built. For a canal via Budweis and Linz tho difference in level would be noariy 2000 feet; via Budweis and Kronenburg it would be 1700 feet. The difference in level for the Menlik-Pardubitz route would be onl*v 1300 feet. Fifty locks would be needed on the latter route as against about double the number for the Linz route.

For connecting the Rhine and Weser with the Elbe, and thus linking up those two rivers with the Danube, two routes are under contem.plntion : one via Fallersleben and Oebiafelde, a distance of ninety miles; the other, a (more southerly route, via Brunswick, Wolfenbuttel and Asekersleben, a distance of 107 miles. The estimated cost of the former is 42,500,000 dollars, of the latter 34,000,000 dollars. BETTER FOR HAMBURG. Hamburg would not only retain ; ts importance aa a seaport ivpon_the completion of the new waterways, Mr. Bergboiz points out, but would reach greater heights of prosperity, as the linking of the Elbe with districts to the eastward would open up new possibilities. The total length of the inland waterways of Germany is 8,570 miles, classified as open rivers, rivers made navigable, canals, and navigable lakes. Of the existing canals, the Elbe-Trave Canal and the network of waterways connecting Berlin and the Baltic have proved of immense importance in the transfer of goods from the North Sea to Lubeck and Stettin, both on the Baltic. Through the Elbe-Trave Canal cargoes of imported timber, raw materials, etc., are shipped to the Elbe, and thence to Saxony and Bohemia, whil» coal and other freight are brought down to Lubeck and Stettin. INLAND NAVIGATION. Inland navigation has been the subject of many treaties between the German States since the days of the Congress of Vienna. At that congress agreements were entered ihco reguiuiing navigation on the Ems, Main, Moselle, Neckar, and Rhine. Other treaties were made from time to time prior to the foundation of the German Empire, by the States of the North Geitnan Confederation, among them treaties regarding navigation on the Rlliine and Elbe. A law passed in 1895, and amended in 1900, cancelled regulations on inland waterways and brought about uniformity in navigation laws. Projects for the betterment of inland navigation in Germany, in addition to. those already outlined, include a plan to canalise the Rhine from S trass burg to Basle (79 miles) : the regulation o: the Moselle so as to make it possible to transport ore from Lorraine and l Luxemburg by water; tlie regulation of the Neckar and its canalisation eventuall;v as far as Cannstatt, in Wurttemberg; the canalisation of the Werra and its eventual connection by canal with the Main; the improvement of the Elbe; brie canalisation of its principal affluent, tho Moldau, as far as Prague, and the improvement of the Oder and its tributaries,, the Warte and Netze, until eventually vessels mav ply from their waters to those of the Vistula, the grest great river of Eastern Prussia and Poland.