The chronicle=news., 1913-11-10
FRANCE IS PREPARED TO
Make USE Of PANAMA CANAL

entry Into the harbor Of Papctte. its
security aud the laake earfaee ef
water available 9tve Papeete a. OBJ
vtous superiority. Papeeteis happy
situation. In particular. b. fitted 70
give her preference over Papa and
Honolulu ns tho favorIte stopping
place between California and New
Zealand on the route between Fan
Francisco and Auckland. ..
''If ] add that the construction Of
lizht-houscs u being planned for the
guidance Of ships passing At the
north Of tho Tumanotu Archipelago.
amonK the Numerous islands sowa
throaGhout tho ocean. at the same
time ~ the formation Of the port NJ
Papecte. I will have sufficiently
shown the extent and value. interna.
t!onaliy. OF the programme which the
Minister Of Colonies proposes to car.
ry ont In tho Pacific.
But this ls by no means all that
France intends to do. ~. Jean Mo-
rel. the Minister Of Colonies. let Il
bc understood In answer to Senator
BcrcnHcr. who pleaded tho noble
Cause OF the French Antilles. that th,
old ports Of Pointe-a-Piirc and Fort
dc-Franec would bc improved in pro-
portion 10 the needs of the increased
traffic resulting from the opening Of
the Panama Canal. As far A. Point
a-Pitrc 10 concerned. = decree already
has been prepared by the Cabinet att
thorixing tho Department to under
take the works which have been
Judged necessary Fort.de-Francc
Will not be forgotten.
There arc other problems to be
considered. some OF which directly
concern my department. In Central
America and on the western coast OF
South America. France has relat ations.
traditional friendships. which claim
our attention and arc becoming more
and more important to us. Lastly. Ii
Is necessary TO strengthen our rela-
tions with the western coast of North
America. Our great shipping COM
panics cannot remain indifferent and
inactive while German and English
companies arc renewing and increas-
Ing their services in the Pacific.
ut is impossible for me to state
the decisions of the French shipping
companies. which moreover have not
yet been formulated. All know is
that the Compagnle Generate Tranr-
atlantique after sending one Of Its
inspectors, NJ. Prudhon. to study the
general problem OF navigation In the
Pacific, delegated its General Direc-
tor NJ. Dal Piaz to proceed to Colon
and Panama to 20 further into the
question. 1t is on the return Of the
General Director that the TranSat-
lantiQue company will. with all the
facts before them. decide upon their
arrangements regarding the lines Of
/, steamships WHICH 1t will appear
necessary to create In consequence
of the opening Of the canal. 1t Is
probable that the projects which will
be adopted by French steamship
companies will aim at serving our
colonies in Oceana and will consist Of
either service leaving Havre or
Saint Nazarie which will run to
Noumea via Panama. or, on the other
hand, will consist of q prolongation
lpure and simple, with trans-shipment
at Panama, Of the line which now
runs as far as and stops at Colon.
There are three possible hypo-
theses:
81. That passenger steamers Of
the Colon line may continue their
route as far as Noumea, b. way of
Panama, at the same rate of speed as
at present to Colon. namely IA knots.
In this case the length Of the pass
age, including stops. will be from
forty-two to forty-three days.
"2. That passenger steamers stop
at Colon, the service to be continued
by trans-shipment to boats carrying
cargo and passengers. whose ordfn-
airy speed is II knots. On this hy-
pothesis the crossing from France to
Noumen will rcpresent forty-eight
days. ,sa