THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1906. THE KIEL CANAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8315, 19 December 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1906. THE KIEL CANAL.

A recent cable message stated that a modified scheme has been; presented for widening the Kiel Canal at a cost of £1,250,000, and that the alterations contemplated will prove of great advantage in the way of defence should Kiel be blockaded. The Kiel Canal is of importance in connection with the carrying out of the soherae on whiah the aggrandisement of the German navy is based, and it is important to the unfortunate German taxpayer who has to pay the prioe. Men-of war must have harbours in which they can ride in safety, and docks in which they can lie for repairs, and German warships must be able to pass quickly from the Baltic to the North Sea by way of the Kiel Canal if the strategic idea on which the German fleet is being built is to survive. A Titer in tbe Fortnightly Review stated recently tnat the Reichstag would be urged to vote a sum of £10,000,000 to en. able the canal to fce increased in size. The latest news on the sub jeot hardly bears out that assertion, but what the writer otfierwise says in regard to the canal is very interesting. We are .told that from flr«t to last the Kiel Canal has been a source of great disappointment. It was to prove a abort out from the North Sea to the Baltic, and ships were to pass from ond to end in a ryatter. of about eight hours. The canal was hailed as a realisation of an old droam of the German people. It was designed to accommodate with ease the largest merchant ships likely to use it, and the biggest German men-of-war. Time has shown that in circumscribing their soheme and reducing expenditure the authorities wrecked the whole conception. The canal nas entirely failed to realise expectations; ita traffic has not been anything like as great as was estimated, the journey from

end to end haa proved aa long iu > many circumstances as the navigation of the Kattegat, ships have etuok for loug periods, and geuor- j ally the canal has been a fiasao. The flnai blow was given when the authorities at Berliu determined to abandon medium sized battleships and cruisere,. and to build vessels as large as those under construction for the British fleet. Such vessels, huge in their proportions, cannot pass through the canal, and until tiiey can the Geiman fleet cannot be massed at shurt notion I either in the Baltic or in the North I Sea. The strategical reason d'etre of the canal must consequently ' disappear aa soon as the new colossal men of-war of tho new programmo are completed for sea. Having deoided to build tbewe ship?, it was ueceasary to set about making the oßnal big enough to accommodate them. A commission was appointed to review the whole position, strategical and oommeicial. It una issued a report, in wniob it is urged that the canal can be made to pay, and can be rendered fit to fulfil the requirements of the naval authorities only when it has been largely reconstructed.