Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-03-08

an outlet to both the Atlantic and the
Pacific oceans. We have plans for seT
eral railroads to go through that
country to the great tributaries of the
Amazon. Just at the present We have
not the money to make the extensions.
and this is one reason why i have rot
approved of the NcCune concession. which
provided for the building Of a railroad 10
the Ucayali river. | believe. however.
that We shall soon have railroads reach
ing to the Amazon valley, and that the
Montana will eventually be one of the
most thicllly populated parts of Peru.
"Will not the Panama canal hurry up
this development"
1T should do So and we hope il viii.
With railroads to the Amazon, the higher
priced products of the eastern slope OF
the mountains may be brought down 10
the Pacific and go northward through the
canal. Others Of the products VIII go
down the Amazon, and out to the At
lant;c. We do not expect to receive
great benefit from the canal right at The
start. but we believe that 1t Will steadily
increase our trade. bringing us much
closer to your country and Europe II
is our hope that il will lead many OF
Your: American capitalists to come down
ard look over the ground with view TO
investing. As It is now some of our most
valuable mines are owned in the United
States n'nt, some OF the best development
works of Peru are being done by Alneri-
cans. This is SO with Cerro de Pasco.
with Morococha and with other large
what are you doing to prepare for
the canal?"
Our work so far is at Its beginning"
replied the president. Il have here
scheme for the improvement of the
harbor of Callao that will give us the
finest anchorage for shipping on the west
coast of South America If not one OF the
finest Of the whole world. We have. as
you know. just opposite Callao. lying
parallel with the coast and Sss than
three miles away. the high island o.
San Lorenzo At the southern end the
strip of water between this island and
the coast is very shallow. and we have
found that by the building of a break
water we can unite the two and make an
expanse Of deep water perfectly shut on
from the sea. large enough to hold all
the fleets of the world.
We are making our surveys for build
ing this improvement and. as our engi-
neers figure it will require the dumping
of only about 100000 cubic yards Of
rock, which can be easily gotten
from the islands and the mountains Of
the mainland Col. Goethals has looked
over the plans, and he says the job IS
an easy one. There seems 10 De no eng
neering difficulties in sight, and. accord
ing to the estimates of our surveyors. il
will require less than 100000 to build
When that is done, Callao will be the
chief port of western South America and
one of the great cooling stations of the
eastern Pacific. We have beds Of anthra-
cite coal at Chimbote which we can USE
and we have also fuel oil in great guam
titles to supply any steamers burning
petroleum"
The conversation here turned TO wire
less telegraphy. and President Billing
hurst spoke of the wonderful results that
have been attained by sending messages
from the top Of Mount Cristobal. desert
hill about thousand feet high. that lies
just back of Lima. Said ne:
I'VE had been warned by the German
scientists and wireless experts thai there
would be no use OF putting a station on
that lit e mountain. They said we could
not send messages over the Andes, which,
as you know. reach an altitude OF three
or four miles, and lie just behind. Never
theless, our Peruvian advisers told me
they believed the thing could be done