Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-08-13
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
THE KEEL CANAL

sailles the action was brought to
keep the waterway open to all ships
of nations with which Germany is at
peace even when they carry war
| materials.
A bulletin just issued from the
Washington. ID. c., headquarters of
i the National Geographic Society
deals with this canal which In effect
more than doubled the strength of
the German navy, and which prewar
Germany managed as she chose.
Canal Helped to World Position
1T was really by removing the
| mud and stones from the bed OF the
Kiel Canal-or the Kaiser Wilhelm
Kanal, to give 1t its rightful name
/ that the German Empire dug its way
into its cherished welt politik and
appeared as a great World power"
says the bulletin. Prussia had the
, vision of this most important water
, way before the late empire or any
| thing that could be considered a
! modern German political entity ex-
| listed. Prussia did not own a square
foot of territory on the North Sea.
| The Baltic was her only outlet. She
| had no navy; and Denmark stood
! across her path, a real naval power.
| Oh the North Sea were the Grand
Duchy of Oldenburg, the Kingdom
of Hanover and some smaller princi-
palities.
1.-THE first step toward the future
| canal was taken in 1852 when PPHs-
| sia purchased from Oldenburg an
| area of marshland on the North Sea
| near the mouth of the Weser. On
| this low, muddy site soon rose the
made-to-order city Of Wilhelmshav-
| en- which was 20 become the second
| greatest German war-harbor and the
greatest Gei man naval base on the
| North Sea. The jealousies of the
pre- empire days are we'll shown by
the refusal of Hanover to permit the
building Of a reilway to the site
! which necessitated the slow trans.
portation of all materials by water
around Denmark.
| Won Kiel by War
1.-THE land through which to con
struct the canal and it's Baltic base
Kiel, came to Prussia in 1854 by con.
quest, as q result of the Prussian
Danish war. Two years later Han
over, which had refused cooperation
was defeated by arms and incorpor
ated into Prussia. But the canal wal
not built then nor even after tht
German Empire was established II
1871. for the big navy had hardly
been. born.
Slowly the idea of naval compe'
tition with Great Britain grew; ano
it was probably with a pretty clear
idea of what a North Sea-BaltiC
canal would mean in the naval life
of Germany that the modern Ger
man Empires first ruler, Kaiser
Wilhelm 1, officiated at the breaking
of ground in 1887. The next year
1 Wilhelm II came to the throne, and
before long was not only pushing
the canal to completion but was few
erishly building up the navy, in the
service of which the waterway was
to find its chief function.
Multiplied Navy by Two
''When the emperor formally
opened the Kiel canal in 1895 he
practically multiplied his navy by
two. From the heavily fortified
great naval base and shipbuildine
center at Kiel-the solar plexus OF
the German navy-fighting ships
could slip quietly in a few hours
| through German territory to the
North Sea, for the German equiva-
lent of a fight or frolic.' The island
VI IlOi6OldnQ1 wv AAIO OOOAt 0N40A@ ~
| from Great Britain in 1890 and was
heavily fortified, forming the great
blight into which the canal. the
Weser, and the Elbe opened and on
which Wilhelmshaven was situated,
into huge German naval preserve
THE Kiel Canal and the German
| navy went hand in hand before the
World War, mutually dependent on
one another. The dimensions of the
channel were ample for warships
of the pre-Dreadnaught type, but
when Great Britain began building
battleships of too great size to ira
verse the waterway and Germany
! considered it imperative to follow
with equally powerful vessels, there
was nothing to do, If the navy was
to remain efficiently mobile, but to
| widen and deepen the canal. This
| was undertaken in 1908 and by 1912
the width had been increased from
S5 feet to lao feet at the bottom
Ten feet was added to the depth
making it 46 feet.
Keystone to Naval Strategy
'sHer huge, improved canal was
the keystone of Germany's naval
strategy during the World War
Shielded by Helgoland, she could
| secretly SHIFT her naval strength as
she wished, meeting Russia in the
Baltic SO long as that was desirable
or concentrating the great weight
of her floating batteries in the North
Sea when. projection or offense
against Great Britain was necessary
"Kiel, at the Baltic end of the
sixty mile-long canal, has a comme-
dious, deep harbor which is consid-
cred one of the best havens In
Europe. There centered everything
most important to the German navy:
the Naval Academy, supplies, docks
imperial ship p-building yards and
the construction slips OF the Germa-
MIA Company, the naval alter-ego OF
the Krupps. Kief played its part In
the ending Of the war as it did in Its
progress. On November z. four days
before the Armistice, Kiel had al
ready been seized by mutineers who
set UP soldiers, sailors and work
mems committees. This was one OF
the first places in Germany in which
the imperial regime lost control
From there and from Hamburg the
lrevolution spread rapidly. A little
later many of Germany's most pow
erful fighting ships steamed away
from kIel on their way to intern
ment by the Allies"