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Show Harding Wants Nicaraguan Canal Built pitESIDENT" HARDING has let It he known that he hns an ultimate administrative drenm which Is the construction con-struction of another lnteroceunlc canul In Central America, not to substitute sub-stitute for the Punama canal but to supplement It. The possible necessity for a second canal, through the Nlcnrngunn route, In view of the great Increase In traffic through the Panama canal, wus considered consid-ered at a recent cabinet meeting. Earnings by the canul, Secretary of War Weeks pointed out, were nearly 50 per cent greater than n year ago. There were Intimations In official quarters that the Immediate future would see any difficulties of an International Inter-national political nature amicably removed. re-moved. At present the United States hns a treaty with Nicaragua, known as the r.ryan-Chamorro treaty, by which Nicaragua gives this government govern-ment the right to construct a canal through Nicaraguan territory. The consent of Nicaragua alone, however, Is not sufficient. Inasmuch as the Sun Juan river, a part of the proposed pro-posed Nicaraguan rannl, Is the boundary bound-ary line between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Furthermore, the Bay of i Fonseca, also a part of the proposed route, borders upon Salvador and Honduras, Hon-duras, as well as upon Nicaragua. The Intimation Is that these governments may nil be willing to accede to an American proposal. During January all records were broken for tolls from commercial vessels ves-sels using the canal, and a new record for the number of vesels also was set. Military experts point out that the Nicaraguan route would be much more easily defended than the Panama route. President Harding scarcely expects to see a second canal completed during dur-ing bis occupancy of the White House, but he hopes to start the project under his administration. |
