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Show JtCOMMENTC 1 1 onjanal SB ! Frcnch Engineer Says & the Gatun Dam Is a m I Source of Danger js&i 5S New York, April 12. Philippe Bun- iTO f au-Varllla, the French engineer, who "was at one time In charge of the Pana- fJw. ma canal nnd H'n acted as the first minister from the republic of P-an- jjl ' ama canal and who acted as the first jjfll t minister from the republic of Paua- flP. ma to this country, is In New York jlgi -. today, on his way home from Mexico, jjp where he has heen spending three m& ( months, M. Bunau-Varllla still be- Itom lleves in the "straits of Panama," in Opgl other words a wide, deep sea-level 3B ? channel from ocean to ocean. YM 'A "But It will be a source of Immense r!M'A satisfaction to mo to see the cannl g 3 finished even along the lines at pros- ifljS ft ent planned," ho says. "I am still con- ;.fident, however, that the "straits of M Panama' will come. The present M !r phase of the locks Is the first phase -a'i There will be a time when the canals bha',: is a perfectly level hishway SOO feet M:' 'ide at the bottom and RO'feet deep t5 jf at the lowest tide So much larger Hjj nre shlns being built all the time that 'iSflBl ,ll tIme wil1 comc wltin ten years ttJf-f when the necessity will arise for the 25 t sea-level canal. ISi i "To my mind the plan adopted gives S;jJ, - only a preliminary trial waterway and I m ii tne onI" objection I find is thai cer- M ; tain points are dangerous, lihe, (or I m Instance, the Gatun dam, which will j jjjlfg have to resist the pressure of a vast ' I volume of water that mav be needed I S only ence in fifty yenrs. " . i "But it does not afford me any satis- faction to be hailed as a croaker. The lock canal is bound to be the precur-mn precur-mn a sor of the 'st"a'ts of Panama.' " II As for fortifying the canal. I have :no doubt that if the United States lhas the right to maintain the Monroe I, doctrine. It has the right for the same reason to adopt proper means to en-.( en-.( force that doctrine," ho continued '2 "Naturally, the effect of the opening j of the canal upon Europe will be gi-I gi-I gantlc I don't think that there will i' be. changes, in existing steamship l routes, but new routes will be created. 'i There will be .ninny lines from Eu- rope to the west coast of America I-and new lines from Japan to the east I coast of the Unrted Stales.- Shlp-go-I ing to the Far East from Europe will tr still go through the Suez canal." |