The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-08
.SUEZ CANAL Is OPEN
Spain Can Send Another Fleet to
Manila.
STATUS OF THE CANAL
OPEN TO ,BELLIGERENTS IN
TIME OF WAR.
United States Can Also Send Dewey's
Fleet Into the Mediterranean, But
Neither Nation Is Likely to Take
Advantage of Its Rights-Ques-
ton of Coal

New York, May IA special to the
Herald from Washington says:
If Spain desires to send a fleet to the
Philippines to attack Commodore
Dewey's forces, she is at perfect lib
erty to send it through the Suez canal,
was the statement made by a high Of
| fetal of the state department.
"Of course" he continued, "the Sc
rious question of coal supply would
! greatly harass her, but if the Ameri-
can vessels can find dealers willing to
/ take the risk of violating the neutral
/ ity laws of the nation in which their
coal piles are located, they will prob
ably be willing to do the same thing
/ for the Spaniards, provided the latter
! pay the necessary cash.
II doubt very much if this govern
ment would direct Commodore Dewey S
force to leave Manila and proceed to
/ the Mediterranean-fo the purpose of
sea and of attacking Spanish ports
/ which lie upon it, but it would be pos
/ Sible for American men-of-war to reach
the Mediterranean through the Suez
canal if they were ordered to do SO.
There is a great deal Of popular ig-
norance on this point. AS a matter of
fact, the Suez canal is open to bellig-
ization of the Suez canal was applied
by the convention of Oct. 20, 1888,
which was signed by the six great
powers, by Turkey, Spain and the
Netherlands. Strictly speaking, their
action does not bind the powers that
were not parties to the convention, but
as none is of any Importance except
the United States, and all have dis
tinctly acquieSced in what was done,
the practical result is much the same
as if the whole body of civilized nations
had formally expressed their adhesion
to it.
"The convention declares that the
canal is to be open in time of war, as
well as in time of peace, to all ships,
whether merchantmen or vessels of
war, whether belligerent or neutral
but no acts of hostility are to be COM
mitted either in the canal itself or in
the sea to a distance of three miles
from either end of it.
''The entrances are not to be block
AIDED. The stay of belligerent vessels of
war or their prizes within the ports at
either end is not to exceed "a hours,
and belligerents are not to embark
troops or munitions of war within the
canal or its ports.
BY using the Suez canal, SPANS
vessels will be compelled TO go only
1920 miles to reach Manila The
steaming radius of the Almirante
Oquendo. Vizcaya and Infanta Maria
Teresa is 500 miles, going at the rate
of. ten knots, and they, therefore, could
go the entire distance without re-
eoaling. If necessary, they could take
Golfers along. None cofH Commodore
Dewey's vessels has such a great
steaming radius. and if they should be
sent to the Mediterranean they would
have to take Golfers along and might
be caught without coal in that sea-"
None of the members of the war
board believes for an instant that
Spain will attempt to retake the Phil
| ippines, Notwithstanding the Suez ca
nal is open to her fleets. 1t was
pointed out by an expert with whom L
| talked that the withdrawal of a suf-
ficient force from the Atlantic to at
! tempt the re-capture of the Philip
pines would place not only Cuba and
Porto Rico. but the Canaries and Spain
! itself at the mercy of the American
warships on this coast
1t was more probable, he said, that
the United States would send ships
from the Pacific through the Suez ca
NAL to the Mediterranean to attack
SPANS coast than it would be for the
Madrid government to order its ships
to retake the Philippines, but either
contingency he thought decidedly re-
mote.