Fraser Insists Navy Must Defend Canal.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 29, 1912:
Journalist, Sailing for England, Repeats His Opinions on Inadequacy of Forts.
THINKS CULEBRA DANGEROUS
And That if Foreign Nations Are Discriminated Against They Will Not Use Panama Route.
    John Foster Fraser the well-known English author and traveler, who has been staying at the Hotel Belmont for the past week, sailed yesterday for Southampton on the White Star liner Olympic, after completing his commission from Lord Northcliffe to visit the Panama Canal and write a series of articles for The London Times.
    In one of his articles on the fortification of the canal, which was cabled from London and published in The New York Times of Sept. 16, he pointed out that the fortification as planned on the Pacific would not be strong enough to keep an enemy's ship from doing harm as they could come up outside the islands of Taboga. and Taboguilla within a seven-mile range and shell the entrance to the canal. To obviate the possibility of danger, therefore, Mr. Fraser asserted in his article that the forts would have to be extended and the navy made strong enough to insure against the possibility of the United States losing command of the sea.
    Major Gen. Leonard Wood in answering the statement made by Mr. Fraser on the day following the appearance of the article, said that the fortifications would be such as to relieve the navy of responsibility for the Canal's safety and leave the warships free to pursue the enemy on the high seas. He did not think that the islands were a menace to the Pacific entrance to the Canal. He pointed out that by the treaty with the Republic of Panama, the islands were subject to American occupation if necessary for defense.
    In an interview with a Times reporter yesterday before sailing, Mr. Fraser reiterated what he had said in his paper, and amplified it by stating that the entrance to the Panama Canal on the Atlantic side was liable to be attacked by the enemy's fleet in time of war, as there was plenty of deep water there, and Gatun dam and locks could be destroyed from the sea quite easily if there was no fleet to prevent it.
    "In my opinion, after a careful study of the canal entrance on both sides," said Mr. Fraser, "there is no doubt that the new waterway will be the weak link for the United States in war with another power, as the enemy would certainly attack it. The opening of the canal will make it absolutely necessary for America to have two fleets, one on the Atlantic, and the other on the Pacific, to protect her property. If the canal was partly destroyed, which might happen, all communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific would be cut off unless there were two fleets acting in concert with each other.
    "The isolation of the canal zone is a good idea, because with a number of foreigners living along its banks, there would always be the danger or some one being hired to blow up the locks or the dam with dynamite.
    "There is also a great danger," Mr. Foster continued, "that Culebra Cut will cave along the excavations. There is the glacial movement there, and already houses built within half a mile have been carried over and destroyed. The land slides are still moving, and carrying thousands of tons of earth with them. Col. Goethals and his able staff of Army Engineers did not say to me that they were afraid of Culebra Cut falling in, but I know that they were. The Y.M.C.A. Building is nearing the brink, and other buildings are following it toward the cut. If I had to build them I would choose a site five miles away from the canal, so that I should not have to move for some little time."
    "What do you think of the canal as an undertaking?" he was asked.
    "From an engineering point of view," replied Mr. Fraser, "it is a remarkable piece of work, which only a great power with unlimited wealth and energy at its command could have carried out successfully. The work on the canal is so great that America can afford to be modest about it. I have spoken to all the engineer officers on the Isthmus and never heard one of them exclaim: 'The Gatun Dam is the biggest in the world.'
    "What impressed me most was the wonderful organization on the entire length of the canal works. The feeding of 60,000 to 75,000 laborers each day with stores brought in cold storage from New York and taken dally to the different sections on the canal by a special train and the keeping of these same laborers in good health. I got sick down there myself, and had to go into a hospital when I arrived in Canada on my return, but I think perhaps that was due to my not being an American, and accustomed to the climate."
    "What do you think of the prospects of the Panama Canal from a commercial point of view?" Mr. Fraser was asked.
    "I do not think it will ever be a success commercially," he said, "or that the new waterway will even pay the working expenses, which will be very heavy. The army and navy will have to share a part of the burden, as the canal was constructed by the United States Government with the view of its use in time of war. The officials on the Isthmus from the Chief down all seemed to be of the opinion that every ship using the canal should pay a portion of its upkeep.
    "If American coastwise ships are to be free of all tolls then the burden will fall on the foreign owned ships, and they will stay away, that's all. It is a commercial question for the United States and not a political one. If the people of this country are content to be taxed in order that private corporations shall reap the benefit by sending their ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific free of tolls and vice versa, very well then."
    Mr. Fraser added that he had enjoyed his stay on the Isthmus, and had received every courtesy from Col. Goethals and his staff of engineers and officers, who explained every interesting feature to him the whole course of the canal from Colon to Panama.
    One of Mr. Fraser's early feats was to ride round the world on a bicycle, during which he passed through seventeen countries and rode 19,237 miles in 774 days. Some of his best known books are: "The Real Siberia," "America at Work," and "Australia: The Making of a Nation." He is a member of the Royal Geographical and Royal Zoological Societies of England.