The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, SEPT; 24, 193O. THE SUEZ CANAL.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 September 1930, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, SEPT; 24, 1930. THE SUEZ CANAL.

The a is was a very large gathering on Monday night at the locM theatre for the presentation oif a talking picture which revealed some important phases of the history of the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal as a means' of' connection between the " Mediterranean and Red Seas goes back far into history, which records that no' leas than thirty-three centuries ago there was a waterway there. In thd year 8.0. 1380 a canal was comnlen'ced,' Seven hundred years later history records it was under repair, In the fifth century, Darius of Persia was interested in tne canal and had it-Repaired, apd in the third century B,C. it wag repaired again by Pjolemy 11, In 644 A.D, it was reconditioned, but in the ninth century A,D, it was filled in by order of a Caliph, Coming down the centuries, Louis NIV considered the scheme, and in 1798 Napoleon visited the locality and ordered a survey, hut the levels 'were given wrongly, and the project was dropped, The error was discovered some fifty years latei-, and from that information began the movement for the construction of the canal. Ferdinand de Leeseps took up the task in 1854, He approached England without success. Tne then Prime Minister (Lord Palmerston) was definitely against the project, declaring that “the canal was physically impracticable and would be far too costly to earn any return.” Also he referred to it as “a stagnant ditch —one of the greatest frauds of the times.” j De Lesseps went ahead, and in 1858 shards were Offered to the public. England remained aloof. In the end, of the statutory capital of 200 million francs, 52 per cent was subscribed by France. 44 per cent by Egypt-; and the remaining four per cent by European nations. Tile manner in which England came into the picture after the construction of the Canal, is interesting, if not romantic, The editor of a London paper dining with a friend, learned that the Khedive of Egypt whs negotiating for the sale of his shares to a French Company, Next day the information was given the Foreign Secretary and passed on to Disraeli, Negotiations began at once, and within a fortnight the purchase price was agreed and the contract completed. The British Government paid four millions for 176,602 shares (seven-sixteenths of the total issue,) It has proved one of the best financial deals a Government has ever made, Since the purchase in 1875, England has received in interest £38,618,918, and the shares held by England have to-day a market val ,e of seventy-two million steiliug, The excavation for the De Leaneps scheme hegap in 1859, and WHS completed ten years Uiter. On the opening day a procession of sixty-eight vessels pnsesd through the Canal and honours were showered Oil De Lesseps. It- became a popular route at once, and traffic hns grown, The latest figures show over 6000 steamers passed through the Canal last year, the tonnage being almost 35 millions. Nearly sixty per cent of the tonnage using the Canal is British. Vessels of 20,000 tons and more', regularly traverse the Canal, the largest bottom to pass through being 27,807,

tons. The Suez Canal was a point of intmyst during the Great War. Jn 1910 an a.bortive attack was made on the -'Uaiial by tbc Turks who were repulsed heavily. It may not ‘be known generally'that the concession for the Suez Canal expires in 19(58, when (or rather oefore) negotiations will require to 1)0 opened with the Egyptian Government for a renewal." Egypt, it may be expected, will be desirous of driving a harder bargain, for the tJueK Canal is one of the chief reasons for the B'ritish occupation of Egypt. But that is with the future. For the present there is a great and notable work continuing to serve the maritime nations of- the world and doing it extremely well and satisfactorily.