The record-union., 1898-12-06
NICARAGUA CANAL.
Attention Called to Urgency OF
Definite Action in Matter.

The Nicaragua Canal Commission,
under the Craftsmanship of Rear Ad-
miral John G. Walker, appointed July
24, 1897, under the authority of . pro-
vision in the Sundry Civil Act of June
4th of that year, has nearly completed
it's labors, and the results of it's ex-
haustive inquiry into the proper route,
the feasibility and the cost of con-
struction of an interoceanic canal by
a Nicaragua route will be laid before
you. In the performance of it's work
the commission received all possible
courtesy and assistance from the gov
ernments of Nicaragua and Costa
Rica, which thus testified their appre
citation of the Importance of giving a
speedy and practical outcome to the
project that has for so many years
engrossed the attention Of the re-
| spective countries.
AS the scope of recent inquiry en-
braced the whole subject, with the aim
of making plans and surveys for q
canal by the most convenient route, it
necessarily included a review of the
results of previous surveys and plans,
and in particular those adopted by the
Maritime Canal Company under its
existing concessions from Nicaragua
these grants necessarily held an essen
tial part in the deliberations and con-
clusions of the Canal Commission, as
they have held and must needs in the
discussion of the matter by Congress.
! Under these circumstances, and in
view of overtures made to the govern
ments of Nicaragua and Costa Rica
by other parties for new canal con-
cession predicated on the assumed
approaching lapse of the contracts of
the Maritime Canal Company with
those States, I have not hesitated to
express my convictions that consider
ations of expediency and international
| policy, as between the several gov
| ernments interested in the construc-
tion and control of an interoceanic ca
nal by this route, require the main
| tenance of the status quo, until the
Canal Commission shall have reported,
and the United States Congress shall
| have had the opportunity to pass
finally upon the whole matter during
the present session without prejudice
by reason of any change in the exist
| ing conditions.
| Nevertheless it appears that the Gov
| ernment Of Nicaragua, as one of its
! last sovereign acts before merging it's
powers in those of the newly formed
| United States of Central America, has
granted an optional concession to an
| association, to become effective on the
expiration of the present grant. 1t
/ does not appear what surveys have
been made or what route is proposed
under this contingent granted, so that
an examination of the feasibility of it's
plans is necessarily not embraced in
the report of the Canal Commission.
| All these circumstances suggest the
urgency of some definite action by the
/ Congress at this session, if the laborS
| of the past are to beeutilized and the
! linking of the Atlantic and Pacific
] Oceans by a practical waterway is to
be realized. That the construction of
such a maritime highway is now more
than ever Indispensable to that inti-
mate and ready. inter-communication
between our Eastern and Western sea-
boards demanded by the annexation of
the Hawaiian Islands and the prospec-
| tive expansion of our influence and
commerce to the Pacific, and that our
national policy now more imperatively
than ever calls for it's control by this
Government, are propositions which I
doubt not the Congress will duly ap-
preciate and will act uDOn