ISTHMUS OF SUEZ.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1718, 27 August 1862, Page 6

ISTHMUS OF SUEZ.

[Fromthe "Sydney Herald," Aug. 4.] The canalization of the Isthmus of Suez is now assuming a practical form, which removes it from the list of mere projects. It is not to be denied that it lias been regarded with an unfavourable eye by the statesman of England and Turkey. The stratagetic and political importance of this canal is obvious enough, whatever doubts may be thrown upon its commercial and financial success. A deep ditch of nearly three hundred feet in breadth may not prove the great highway of the world, or a path of commerce from the West to the East; it may not pay as an investment ; but there can be no doubt that, defended by a succession of forts, a causeway and an army, it would resist an enormous power approaching on the opposite side. Thus isolating Egypt from the superior authority by which it is controlled, it would possibly submit its local government to the influences of powers hostile alike to Great Britain and the Porte. Such were the views of the Ministry. England is not, however, without some protection. Not only is Aden a fortification (if we may rely upon the statements of the French) inferior to no work of the kind, but England has acquired tue Island of Perim, which commands the Red Sea, and past which no war squadron could venture. Thus it is said that while it is possible for a power hostile to the British Government to command the canal itself, it is in the power of England to render the use of that canal impossible. One thing, however, must strike all persons—that it would be most undesirable to obstruct a great work on the ground of a possible iujury to a single nation. In the present state of the world all empires must harmonise their claims and their policy with the common benefit of mankind. Those pretentions which will not agree with this cosmopolitan interest must be abandoned. If India cannot be held against the aggressions of other European powers by moral influence, it will scarcely he retained by arms. Happily, however, the policy of Great Britain has made it the interest of most nations that she should hold possession of that country. While they are offered all the commercial benefits to be derived from Indian occupation, it is scarcely likely that tuey would take care of its government, which it is indeed necessary for some European nation to hold, and which it possesses rather as trustee for the civilised world than for its own exclusive advantage. The interest of the canal of Suez is daily increasing as its works progress, and the realization appears to be more and more certain. Our readers are aware that this work is undertaken by a company professedly comprehending the capitalists of all nations, but in which the Viceroy of Egypt, a man of great intelligence and spirit, is the chief shareholder. To encourage the undertaking, he has made large concession. The canal is only one part of the scheme. The projectors contemplate the erection of great commercial cities and the reclaiming of large breadths of country, much of which is not now capable of being traversed without great precautions. In a report published by the company in the Moniteur of Paris, of May Oth, we have a full description of the works and prospects of the company, filling several closely printed columns. From these facts we extract a few that may be interesting to our readers. The report of thfi Engineer-in-Chief to the Directors states, " that last year they were accomplishing the double end to be achieved in the course of 18G1-2, namely, tho excavation of a cutting to the El Guisr and thtj the opening of a passage across the elevation to Lake Timsah; and the other to make a communication with the Delta by opening a canal of fresh water from the Nile." On this we have concentrated the greater part of our efforts, and the result has accorded with our wishes. The principal difficulty to the junction of the two seas was the cutting of the trench across the El Guisr, because it conld not be accomplished until we had provided means by which to convey material and subsistence. An attempt was immediately made to cross Lake Menzaleh and to construct part of the cutting between Port Said and the extreme mouth of the elevation to El-Ferdane. Simultaneously we commenced the construction of the fresh water canal which is destined to form the point of departure in communication with the great centres of supply. The maritime cutting became at once useful for boats and rafts, allowing a draught of water of yard I*2o, and a breadth of eight yards to the the water line. Some parts between Kantara and El-Ferdane are twelve yards on the surface. This cutting, undertaken by sub-contractors, for the service of transports, has now reached to the foot of the elevation, where there is a depth sufficient to create a small port. This will form a navigable way of seventy kilometres in length. The canal of fresh water commences at llaz-e-1 Ouade, and touches the plateau where the future city of Timsah is to be erected. " The total length is 34,835 metres, with a gradient of 0.478. It is opened on a breadth of bottom of 7 in. 70. The total number of cubic yards excavated has been 1,013,202, and these excavations have been executed by an average of six or seven thousand men. The El Guisr was first approached from the sea, by the maritime cutting, and on the side of Egypt by the fresh canal, and the transport of material and food and water to the centre of the isthmus was thus hereafter en-ured. The moment was come to concentrate on this point the efforts of the greatest number of our workmen. The execution of these canals united had occupied eight or ten thousand of the nalives, but these preparations having been made, triple that force can be I employed. We are in a condition now to supply food and shelter to an army 'of workmen. At the outset 20,000 men or more may be employed regularly on our line of operation. The workmen are not "able to excavate more than a cubic yard per man per day. So soon as the waters of the Mediterranean run in the Lake Timsob, they will follow the exteusion of the cutting from that lake to Sue;?, and continue in parallel lines the ex*» \

ecution of the canal of fresh water to the Red Sea. | These labours can be accomplished easily in eight | or nine months, so that certainly before the ex-j piration of the year, if the workmen do not fad us | the two seas will be put into communication and the problem of their junction well be resolved. “ The principal sphere of labour will be the 1 port of Said. There we shall have to construct two jetties, and provide for the dredging of the port, besides erecting shops and dwelling houses. At this moment there is a population at Said of a thousand Europeans, and the rising city presents already the aspect of a small town with an hamlet containing an Arab population of 2000 souls. From the Ist of March, 1801, to 1862, there entered the port of Said 260 ships, of which the company received 150. The total capacity of this commercial fleet was 40,000 tons. The ships arrived full of provision and material. We hope that this account will suffice to give an exact idea of the powerful means at our disposal to push hereafter with redoubled activity, and to bring it surely to a successful end. One of the greatest difficulties has been the want of water way, but this having been now accomplished, and the services being organised, all our efforts will hereafter be consecrated to the execution of the works properly so called, and the entire and unlimited success may be looked to with confidence.” Another part of the report referred to the subsidiary advantages in course of realisation by the Company. So soon as the fresh water canal is completed they are prepared to undertake the construction of the city of Timsah. A despatch received in May last announces the construction of the first house in the city, and states that it was inaugurated by a fete. The company counts that by the Ist November next all the establishments necessary to instal at Timsah the chiefs of the principal services will he accomplished. This concentration is of high importance. It will simplify all the derails. The company have found that by changing their project at one particular point they have been enabled to save 2,500,000 f. upon 4,000,000 f. To accomplish the entire work will require the removal of 50,000,000 cubic yards of earth, and the deposit iu the sea of 1,500,000 cubic yards of stone. The report touches upon those grounds of opposition to the work which have been raised from time to time by “our neighbour.” “You recall,” it observes', “ the fears expressed particularly in the neighbouring country in reference to the lot of the workmen employed in the cutting of the canal. Hunger and thirst were to decimate them as in the times of Pharoah-Necho, when, according to Herodotus, he caused 80,000 workmen to perish. 200,000 natives who had been successively employed during the year, have been better supplied with food than they would have been among their own families in their own districts, and the mortality in analogous conditions has been less in the "Isthmus than in France; while to the natives it is below all that we could have possibly hoped, namely two individuals in 10,000. The proof is complete. Our workmen have been in the lakes—in sands, in vegetable earths; they have displaced millions of cubic yards, all which in Europe would have produced numerous maladies. But our hospitals at Point Said, Kantara, and El Guisr, received only a small number of sick. We attribute these admirable results in part to the zeal of our medical corps, directed with solicitude and active intelligence by Dr. Aubert Roche.” Another interesting feature is the recovery of land and its cultivation. It has brought already seven per cent, of the capital engaged in this part of the work. The report states, “We have drawn to this property the Bedouin Arabs who wander in the desert. They serve at present as a point of support to push on to the Biblical land of Gessen, which has remained sterile and unpeopled from the time of the departure of Moses. The accountant gives a statement of a tour, in which he was accompanied by many of the chiefs of the desert. These men, whom we knew personally, and who have always shewn great eagerness to come and live in the midst of us, are surprised at the advantages offered, particularly at the land in the territory of Raineses, and have immediately leased 2000 acres. These new farmers will bring their families, and we may say that the first group of the population, more numerous already than that which was conducted by the Patriarch Jacob, is actually formed in the centre of the same valley of Gessen. Other chiefs are preparing to imitate this example.” The company have very wisely resolved to have nothing to do with the cultivation themselves, and cannot fail to derive immense advantages from the encouragement of settlement upon such terms as they have proposed. They conclude by saying, “ The canal will form a means of communication to 300,000,000 of Europeans and Americans, with 700,000,000 of Asiatics, Africans, and Polynesians. Not that we do not suppose that 4,000,000 of tons will be surpassed when the canal is completed. For when we made this calculation, China had not been opened by the valour of our soldiers and marines ; Siam and Japan hail not sent their ambassadors; Cochin China had not been conquered by our armies ; Madagascar was not rescued from barbarism under a new king, who lias invoked, by one of his envoys, our compatriot, the aid of the light and capital of Europe. “ In the midst of this awakening, who can predict the proportions which commerce will take between the East and the West by the new way of the Suez Canal ? It is then towards this achievement that we ought to concentrate our efforts. After having vanquished the greatest difficulties, let us continue to affirm by our constant union an indissoluble bond, and since the circumstances have obliged France to take a greater part in the accomplishment of a universal work, oi which it incurs the perils and the risks, to benefit the entire world, let us contribute to prove that our country knows how to persevere in undertakings fruitful of peace as she has always done in the enterprise of war.” In a paper on this subject in the Revue de deux Mondes of December last it is freely admitted that some of the expectations of commercial success are less probable than the projectors seem to imagine. It is seen that, notwithstanding the advantage of a short passage, it is liable to a great deduction for uncertainty, and the danger to health which, in such a climate, would be serious. In some of our own journals there are continually expressions of jealousy at the advancement of France. The same sentiments, with apparently much more reason, affect the writers ot Paris. They are astonished at our vigour, almost amounting to fury, in seizing every possible advantage for commercial advancement, and they attribute to us a breadth and foresight in national rivalry which would be rather astonishing to the quiet-minded English trader who, while he swells the trade of his country, has not much larger views than to acquire a fair return for his merchandise.