New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-05-21
4 SECOND SrEZ CAN1L.

The project of constructing n second Suez
Canal has received the support OF powerful
commercial corporations in England and mas
excited popular enthusiasm. The present
waterway has proved successful as a financl?
enterprise but inadequate To meet the require
ments of trade. The projectors were disap-
pointcd by the immediate results OF the
opening of the canal, and even as late
IA 1879 the. annual tonnage remained sta
tiunary at 100000, there having been
no increase since 1874. From 1879 TO
1881 there was an enormous increase, the ton
mage for the second year nggrcgatne
1000. 900. Five-sixhs of England's trade
with India, Japan, Ceylon, the Straits and the
| Philipplnes is now carried on through the canal.
| The trade of thase countries aggregates
S545, OOC 900, and $lG0.00O,OOO of it passes
| through the canal aud to this must be added
| SEQ. OOO. 900 of the SZ75, 900, 600 representing
| British trade with Australasia. The grand
| total of British trade with all countries lying
| hcvond the isthmus being $500 000, 600, the az
prerate of the canal traffic is $4,000, 900. or
nearly two-thirds of tho whole. The business
of the canal has doubled since 1879, and the
| facilities of transit are new unequal to the re-
| ouirements OF commerce, partial blockades
| and tedious delays being of frequent occur
| renee A second waterway is needed, and
although the capital required for the work is
| large. the financial investment can easily be
demonstrated to be not Only safe but highly
remuneIa.ive after term of years. 1t is not
without reason, therefore, that English capital
i, attracted by the projected enterprise. Nor
are patriotic considerations wanting, for Egypt
| I,oA N British
the most valuable one that has been II adc since
tie America colonies were lost, and 1t will DO
4 legitimate source of national pride if Eng
lshmrn can point to ditch of their own across
the isthmus, planned by their engineers and
constructed with their capital as well as used
mainly by their ships. They cannot forget that
tie present waterway was exclusively French
| in origin and construction, and, moreover,
was pelsistently opposed and ridculed by Eng
| lish capitalists and engineers.
Three routes have been proposed for this new
mteroceanic waterway. One of these, leading
from Eel Arish on tie Mediterranean to Akabah
ot the head of the Gulf of Akabah, does not
| need 70 be seriously considered, as it involves
| longer Mediterranean and inland lines of transit
than the other two, and passes along an in
| defined frontier TIE second is fIosh water
| route. Leading from Alexandria to Suez by
| way of Cairo The first section of the canal
would run through Lake Mareotis and after
striking tie Nile would follow its course to
| Cairo. a distance of 11S miles; and the re-
mining section of 100 miles would lead through
| Beliefs to Mahsamah in close proximity to the
| nresent Ismailieh canal, and would terminate
| AT SueZ. The entire canal would be about 240
miles in length, distance equivalent to the
present salt water route from Alexandria TO
Suez by way of Port Said but every mile
| would be artificial waterway and several locks
would be required. The crossing of the Nile
at Cairo would present peculiar difficulties and
involve the necessity of completing what ID
known as the barrage of the stream. If these
engineering difficulties could be surmounted,
the canal would be work of national utility,
which the present Sues Canal is not II would
| complete the former Khediye's system of iITi-
CATION and would add enormously to the pro-
ductiveness of the tracts through which it might
run, and it would do much to restore to Alexan-
dria its commercial greatness. II would, how
ever increase the time of passage by twenty
four or thirty-six hours over the present route,
and this fact is sufficient to condemn it in the
Judgment of practical Englishmen who are
bent upon securing quick as well as cheap tram
sit Low tolls would not compensate them for
an inevitable loss of time.
The third route is the one chosen by NJ de