The San Francisco call., 1897-10-05
TIGALDA ISLAND.

tooer bulletin of the Bureau of American
Republics prints announcement from
Colonel O'Hara, at San Juan oiel Norte,
that an important contract has been
signed be ween the Nicaraguan Govern
ment and an English stea mship company
which, if permitted to stand, will prove a
serious infringement of the rights of the
Maritime Canal Company. By this con-
tract the Atlas Steamship Company is
given the exclusive right for thirty years
to navigate the Silico Lagoon. and also
for the same period the exclusive right to
construct and operate tramways and rail-
ways along the banks of the San Juan
River. At the same time in granting this
concession, the Nicaraguan Government
binds itself not TO grant subsidies TO any
other steamship line navigating Lake
Nicaragua.
This concession assumes international
i'm portanca b. reason of the fact that the
San Juan River is part of the channel
SURVEYED for the Nicaragua canal, and
that Like Nicaragua is al-o an i'm portant
portion of route of this projected trans
isthmian waterway. The concession,
therefore, is considered as a direct attack
upon the project at the hands of the
Nicaraguan authorities and violation of
an earlier concession, which, although
Nicaragua claims it to have been forfeited
tor non-com pliance with the terms of the
contract, is still held as in full force by the
friends of the Nicaraguan canal in the
Senate and the House and by the owners
of the conce ,sion in New York.
1t is considered extremely significant
that EnUlISh Uhi1a ha
question of Government aid to the Mari
time Canal Comrany is pending in Con-
gress, is said to have been able to secure
grant of this character. which carries with
itexclusive rights for such long period to
construct and operate tramways and rail-
ways along the bank of the San Juan
River, together with a pledge not to af-
ford subsidy assistance to other steamsh hip
lines navigating the great lake, which, if
the Nicaragua canal is built, will be an
integral part of the route. The Panama
railroad, which runs along the ajor por-
ton of the survey of the Panama canal,
was purchased by the Panama Canal
Company as a necessary adjunct to that
great undertaking. 1t will be extremely
difficult on account of the great additional
EXPENSE for any company to construct the
caragua canal without a railway along
a portion of the, course by which mate
riais can be transported.
An army officer thoroughly familiar
with the Nicaraguan isthmus, due TO
some years of residence in that section of
Central America, said to THE CALL cor
respondent to-day that the concession to
the Atlas Steamship Company was, in
his opinion, the result of shrewd diplo-
matte maneuvering on the part of Great
Britain.
''The insistence of that country" said
he, upon the binding force of the Clay
ton-Buiwer treaty. has heretofore pre-
vented The United States from itself en-.
gaging in the construction of the canal,
and has forced the organization OF a pri-
vate corporation whose success will de-
pend upon assistance rendered it by the
Government The object of England has
been naturally to prevent It's country
from control ing the projected inland
waterway. Ii the concession granted 10
this English corporation is to stand, the
prospect for the building of the canal in
my judgment is more remote than it has
been for years past. Ii such a con-
cession has been actually granted, as
there Is little reason 10 doubt seems TO be
the case. our State Department should at
once enter into communication with the
Nicaraguan Government in the interests