THE SUEZ CANAL.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 403, 27 September 1875, Page 4

THE SUEZ CANAL.

The London correspondent of the Argus writes : At last that great enterprise is acknowledged to have become a paying concern. According to the elaborate report prepared by Yicomte F. de Lesseps, and shortly to be presented to the shareholders, the financial expenditure in 1874 was 17£ millions of francs, while the receipts were upwards of 26£ millions, so that the long-suffering proprietors will at length enjoy the pleasant sensation of handling a dividend, even should it prove the last, for it appears that the canal cannot continue long. As it is, the traffic is rapidly expanding beyond its capacity. It is now barely navigable from overcrowding, and a further increase of transit will render the passage slower every day. The ships from the Mediterranean side become of larger size, and the company is plundered by over-tonnage to double the extent of that registered. Wrecks from this cause increase, and indeed are inevitable. Some means are necessary for expressing the real capacity of the ships passing through, as no dependence can be placed on the honesty of the owners’ declarations. The company propose an increased rate ; and a further outlay of thirty-five millions of francs to enlarge the canal is said to be in contemplation. The report contains some angry accusations of bad faith against the English embassy at Constantinople in throwing over the interest ot French shareholders, and also of intriguing to render the Suez Canal an international undertaking. Of these grave charges we shall probably hear more hereafter. If Parliament were not now ion the eve of rising, the subject would doubtless have been ventilated there, and we should at once have learned the real nature of Sir Henry Eliot’s interference in the matter. Most probably it will be found that he has only resisted the imposition of extra charges.