The Suez Canal.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4236, 29 July 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Suez Canal.

For a quarter of a century the Suez Canal has been the subject a deep interest to Great Britain. Never, however, has the work attracted more attention, nor has it ever been the object of so much anxious solicitude as it is now. In the first instance the project of the canal was viewed with suspicion. The enterprise of Lieut. Waghorne .established the superiority of the overland or Bed Sea route, but the English influence was cast in favor of the railway as against the canal. Arguments were adduced to show that the canal could not be kept open if made; yet, strange to say, there was historical evidence against this supposition, inasmuch as there was a canal in existence 600 years before the Christian era, and it was kept open for many centuries. The world is indebted to M. de Lesseps for the conception and the construction of the present work. France may be said to have done much, in the person of her great engineer, to atone for the wrong inflicted upon Egypt by her great general. The Pyramids with their centuries of ages look down, not upon French victories, as anticipated by Napoleon, but upon a beneficient work. The success of the canal has been more brilliant than its projector could ever have dreamed of. The shares have risen to an enormous value, so that the investment of the Earl of Beaconsfield is said to have quadrupled in value. As one result of the canal a revolution has been effected in the construction of vessels for the Eastern trade, all the steamers of the day being on the "canal-boat" model; that is, adapted for passage through the artificial straits. Not only that, but the trade of the East is being daily transferred from sailing vessels, which cannot use the canal, to steamers, which can. It may be said that Great Britain reaps both the direct and the indirect advantages of the work. Other nations could build; ships, but she has a practical monopoly in the construction of steamers. Moreover, the canal has given her a grip upon India such as she never had before. Had the waterway been open during the Indian mutiny, the revolt of the sepoys could have been crushed at the outset. The advantages ! we in Australia derive is also enormous, and the trade with China is equally ibenefitted. Under these circumstances the Imperial Government has of late years taken high ground; has asserted that English interests in the canal are paramount; has purchased the Khedive's interest in the work; and, moreover, practically undertook the guardianship of the work. During the war between Bussia and Turkey, there were reports that Bussia would strike at the Canal, and the Earl s*of Derby : addressed a despatch to Lord Lyons, the ! British Ambassador at Paris, stating :— ' " Her Majesty's Government are deeply | sensible of the importance to ■ Great j Britain and other neutral powers of preventing the Canal, being injured or

blocked up by either of the belligerents in the present war, and Your Excellency is at liberty to inform M. de Lesseps that Her Majesty's Government has intimated to the .Russian Ambassador that an attempt to blockade or otherwise to interfere with the Canal or its approaches would be regarded by Her Majesty's Government as a menace to India, and as a grave injury to the commerce of the world. I added that oh both those grounds any such step woUd be incompatible with the maintenance by Her Majesty's Government of an attitude of passive neutrality. * *\ * Her Majesty's Government are firmly determined not to permit, thy C'ana! 'o be made tho.scene of a;iy combat or oilier Vaviike operations."

The canal runs from Port Said on the Mediterranean side—an artificially- created port—to Suez on the Bed Sea. The town, of Ismalia is half-way between these ter;mii»i. The isthmus is about 100 miles broad between these points. The canal is 98 miles in length. It is 300ffc. wide on top from one bank to the other, about 150 ft at the bottom, with a depth of 26ft. The Mediterranean entrance is at Port Said. Here a capacious harbor has been formed by the construction of two jetties built of concrete blocks, the one of 2700 and the other 2000 yards, with a space of 1300 ft. between their respective ends. A basin of 500 acres is thus enclosed, and it is claimed that a secure shelter is provided. Port Said is the Wapping of the canals, and is built upon a reclaimed sandbank. It has made remarkably rapid progress. Here it is that the agents of the various lines of steamers to the East have located themselves, and the place consequently is more European than are most of the Egyptian cities.

Leaving the lake the canal enters the desert. Forty miles from Port Said the sand heights of El Guisr are reached. This was the heaviest portion of the work. Twenty~five steam dredges were employed, and 20,000 fellahs were at work for two years. After leaving the cuttings the canal passes through Timsab. This was formerly a fresh water lake, receiving the overflow of the Nile, and to judge by its name a great resort of crocodiles, timsati being the Arabic name for that animal. On the northern shore, a mile and a half from the canal channel, is the town of Ismalia, a prettier though a much smaller town than Port Said. It is connected with Cairo by the fresh-water canal and by railway. Here it is that the " father cf the isthmus," as M. de Lesseps loves to be, called, resides when he visits Egypt, and it is a favorite resort with the European population of Cairo. Cairo is 70 miles away. Should hostilities break out, Ismalia will probably become a place of importance as a naval rendezvous, for, as it is, Lake Timsah frequently contains a fleet of vessels, including men-of-war. The shores are more broken and are higher than is the case with the other lakes, so that there is a greater approach to the picturesque in its appearance. Lake Timsah is five miles long. Ccn-* tinuing the journey towards Suez the Canal for a few miles is again a trench, but it soon becomes a channel, passing through the so-called Bitter Lakes. These lakes were extensive depressions of the desert soil, seven miles wide in places, and from Bft. to 30ft. deep. The sandy, gravelly surface is strewn with shells presenting the appearance of a sea beach. Some people consider, the depression of the Bitter Lakes to have at one time formed the head of the Bed Sea, and M. de Lesseps is of opinion that here must be placed the point of crossing of the Israelites. The channel through the lakes is carefully buoyed and marked with beacons. It is reported to the Admiralty that the masters of vessels find more difficulty in keeping their course between the buoys than they do between the embankments, but in time of war the lakes will be a great protection. They conceal and protect the cutting by their expanse of water.

The total cost of the Canal is stated at £20,000,000. In the concession originally made, the Khedive undertook to provide forced labor, but he failed to carry out this condition, and he paid a sum of £3,800,000 in default to the promoters. This sum was spent upon the works. At every six miles the channel is widened, so that ships can moor for the night and leave the passage open, and so that one vessel can haul off while another passes. All these movements are regulated by telegraph from Port Said, Ismalia, and Suez. In spite of these precautions, it will happen that a ship will take the banks, and will swing into the channel, and a block lasting for two or three days will ensue. The Company has power to destroy any vessel by explosion that may be immoveable for any lengthened term, and so seriously obstruct the navigation, but there has been no occasion to use this power.

A glance at the situation shows how great must be the difficulty of defending such a work as the canal. The worst has been said in Mr Gladstone's remarks upon the subject in 1877:—"It seems to me very doubtful whether confident reliance can be placed upon the canal for our military communications with India under the varied and shifting contingencies of war. I make no doubt whatever that we shall secure and firmly hold whatever can be attained by maritime supremacy at both extremities of the canal, but neither maritime supremacy nor forts will secure unbroken freedom of passage of waterway where there is only a depth of from 24ft. to 28ft., with a general width sufficient for one vessel to be obstructed.-* Mr Dicey says,' Given four and twenty hours' time and a company of sappers and miners on any portion of its sandy banks, and damage might be done which would not only render the canal impassable for the moment, but which could not be repaired for weeks and even months. Even if it were possible to hold the line, approaching 100 miles long, as a continuous fortification, it does not at once appear how the canal could be secured against the furtive scuttling of ships.'" And so Mr Gladstone runs on. This is the pessimist view. | If the canal has now to be defended, it will be not from an external enemy, but from the hostile population of the territory through which it runs. A great deal may be done, however, by concentrating a force at Ismalia, where there is a splendid depot for warships, and, as has-been pointed out, the lakes are themselves a considerable protection, and defend the waterway for a third of its length. A force at Ismalia would threaten Cairo. It would have 50 miles of waterway on each side to protect, and swift 'despatch boats on the water, and military block house and patrols on the banks would minimise the danger of a raid. No doubt, however, if Egypt were occupied by a European population, "forlorn hopes" would always be obtainable to make a dash at the canal at night and destroy its banks by dynamite or

otherwise, whether they were cut off or not. Nor could such a tension as that included in the defence of tlie canal from Port Said, Ismalia, and Suez be permanently maintained. Tlje complete peace able security of the feanal can only be guaranteed, it would seem, by the rulers of Alexandria and Cairo. It is difficult to Ignore the conclusion that if Great Britain desires the safe and sure passage of the canal she mast govern the Nile Delta herself, or must establish and protect some friendly ruler.