HER MORAL DUTY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 99, 3 May 1913, Page 5

HER MORAL DUTY.

THE PANAMA CANAL.

AND THE QUESTION OF INVASION

-CorvniGm]

[By Electric Telegkapul United Press Assjci utdn. \

(Received 8 a.m.)

St. Louis, May 2. At the Peace Congress Mr Fairbanks affirmed that the United States was morally bound to admit otlier nations’ ships through the Panama Canal on tne same terms as its own. Wnen the iiay-PaunCefor.,e treaty was before the Senate, the right of the United States to discriminate against other Nations was fully considered, and it was decided negativelj.

Mr Carnegie declared that he never had any desire that other nations should attack the United States. If the United States treated them with justness and friendliness, no armed nation would dare to invade the United States. British authority might think it possible for a force of 17U,000 to land from Britain in three weeks, but the United States was able to cope with seven times that number.

HURRYING UP THE DEFENCES

New York, May 1

American reports show that the War Department is hurrying on the defences of the Panama Canal.

THE OPENING DATE

It is hoped to flood the Canal on October 1.

THE CULEBRA CUT

ENG INHERING DIFFICULT!ES

Christchurch, April 28

Mr E. Fondi Wright, a son of the late Mr E. G. Wright, who was associated with his father in several mportant engineering works when the Canterbury railways were being constructed, writing from San Francisco last month to the editor of the Lyttelton Times, does not take an optimistic view of the ability of the American engineers to overcome the difficulties that arc*’ confronting them at the Culebra Cut in the Panama Canal. Perhaps a portion of his letter may be quoted without bringing down on his head the wrath which the American people reserve for those sceptics who venture to suggest that the great waterway. may not be open for traffic by the end of the year. “You may remember that some four or five years ago I pointed out that this slide would become a very serious problem, and I do not see how they are going to cope with it. Supposing the canal was completed and steamers going through, there is nothing to prevent a slide taking place at any rime, and co traffic may be suspended for months and years, as these slides may take place faster than they can be cleaned out.

The Culebra Cut is 45ft. deep, and the Chagres River is simply a mountain torrent, so that you can be sure it rises at least 50ft. to the mile, and f hat the bed of the river one mile from the ditch is in round 100 ft. above the bottom of the cut.

“Noav, everyone knows that when you dig a ditch the adjacent water Irains into it, and when water can fall 'ooft. in one mile it is going to make things move further from the start. r t has been recognised that these hills were a moving mass and that they were not on solid rock. Then, in the rainy -season, they have torrential rains, and as the river, say three ■niles away, will he 200 ft. at least vbove the ditch, and as water will nvariably find the shortest way down, it appears to me as if these hills ,vill always be coming down. “It looks as if it would be about is practical to build a ditch across one of the shingle slides of one of your mountains as it will be to build one here.”