The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-02-14

scientific French consul and cousin of the
Empress Eugene. found that the two
seas were virtually on a level
The engineering problem involved in
digging a ditch twenty-siX feet deep and
from 200 to 800 feet wide 100 miles across
a desert of sand was simple enough, i'm
measurably simpler than the construction
OF the Panama Canal. And labor was in
finitely cheaper. Men were hired to do
the digging at a daily wage of Is cents.
but the dirt could be carried away by
mere children who were employed for
L IL cents a day. and the poor wOrkpeo-
pie were cheated out Of much of that
pittance.
The one difficult and persistent obstacle
was the opposition Of England. Although
the canal would bring her Indian empire
within 1000 miles of her shore, instead of
loo by the old route around the Cape,
she objected to it as a French sidetra ok
from the long ocean highway which she
controlled. The second empire, however,
was at the height of it's power, and the
as fast as they were presented to the
Sultan of Turkey by whose leave the
work was done. After ten years the task
was finished, and in 1869 the canal was
opened by the Empress Eugene, who
came from Paris to lend her presence to
the brilliant celebration.
How England Captured the Canal.
years, however. when the French found
that they had only been building a house
for the English to live in. For the canal
did not belong to the government Of
France, but to a private company, which
had contrived by the devious methods
Of high finance to saddle a large part of
its cost on the Egyptian nation. Soon
the chronic financial difficulties of the
hhedlVe OF Egypt grew critical and he
looked about in 1910 for an opportunity to
pawn his Egyptian shares in the canal.
The French government undertook to
raise the loan in France, but saw fit
first 10 ask the nf ENGLAND
Disraeli was then the British prime min
lister. and he leaped at the chance to
snatch the Khedive's stock. With the
aid Of the Rothschilds, and without con-
sulting Parliament or France, he grabbed
IL on the instant. For a loan of less than
$1,000. 900 the British got mortgage on
to boot For with the canal mortgaged TO
them they gained paramount influence
in Egypt.
After only two years more Disraen
pressing the khedive to pay the London
and Paris bondhOlders their eXtortiOnate
rate of interest on the Egyptian national
debt: and they ended by foreclosing on
throned and the land finetooth Combed
to meet the demands of European Shy
locks, until famine came and the people
rebelled. Thereupon English ships bonn
barded Alexandria in 1852, and an English
army began that occupation of Egypt
which now has lasted more than thirty
years. AS Ripping says, we are not talk
ing about morals but about empire
BY ways that are dark and by tricks
that are vain. the English. first crowded
out the Egyptians, then the French, and
finally the Turks, until now they hold
not only the canal but all Egypt as we'll
Thus today another conquering emperor
seeking to plant his eagles at the meet
ing place of the immemorial lanes of
trade and power. finds the British lion
guarding the crossroads that Napoleon
discovered and lost more than a century
ago.
Can the Germans Take the CanaIs
1t is still doubted if the German COM
manderS Of the Turkish army are yet
embarked upon serious campaign for
the seizure of that crossing. 1t is not
however. that such a movement
was projected when Gen. Won der Goltz
his headquarters at Damas-
Gus and gathered in all the military sup
plies in Syria and Palestine. Since then
the disastrous invasion of Russia has en-
gagged the attention and energies of the
2 800 German military advisers and lead
ers of the Turkish army. But Ismail Kie-
NAL lately declared at Constantinople
that Egypt is England's weak spot and
that Turkey will yet seize the canal.
The natural difficulties of that seizure
far outweigh the military. 1t is true that