Untitled

Taranaki Daily News, 5 March 1921, Page 12

The making of a second Panama Canal is, mooted. Mr. Baker, Secretary for War, in an interview at Washington. on January 10th last, said he advocated a sea-level canal to supplement the present Panama Canal, on the ground that in fifteen years’ time the present canal would be inadequate to handle the world’s commerce. Mr. Baker’s statement was prompted (a cable informed London Times) by a suggestion of the President-elect. Mr. Baker said he believed that the money should be applied to the construction of an entirely new canal, either in Panama or Nicaragua, and added that the project was even more important for commercial than for military purposes. The present canal, he added,, would be too narrow for the passage of the ships of the future, for the new American battleships, which were expected to be completed in 1923, would be 105 ft wide, and the width oi the canal was only 115 feet ,