Must Enlarge Navy To Hold The Canal.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 16, 1912:
English Correspondent Says Waterway Will Be a Weakness if Command of Sea Is Lost.
DEFENSES ARE INADEQUATE
Pacific Entrance Forts Easily Demolished — Unmolested Foe Could Attack Canal at Any Point.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Monday, Sept. 16.— A special correspondent of The London Times in a mailed article from Panama on the problems of the Panama Canal refers to the question of fortification, and says:
    "The Naos group of islands at the Pacific entrance is dominated by the Islands of Taboga and Taboguilla, both outside the canal zone, behind which a hostile fleet could lie hidden, safe from the fire of the American batteries.
    "If this fleet held command of the sea, it could mount heavy guns on the lofty summits of the islands, from which the forts on the Naos group could be pounded to pieces.
    "Then, too, a hostile power, having even temporary command of the sea on either ocean, would have no difficulty in landing troops on any part of the coast and marching them down to attack some part of the long line of the canal. This possibility will mean the maintenance in the zone of a large military force.
    "In the United States it is widely supposed that the completion of the canal will lessen the necessity of building up a big navy, since it will enable the rapid transfer of ships from ocean to ocean. To me the exact reverse seems to be the truth, for the canal zone, depending as it will on sea transport for its supplies, will in case of war have all the disadvantages and none of the advantages of an island.
    "The present insufficient scheme for fortification is said officially to be for the purpose of guarding the neutrality of the canal in time of war, and Great Britain has acquiesced in this singular interpretation of the terms of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty.
    "But the canal, as matters stand, will be only neutral when the United States is not belligerent, and, weakly fortified, it will invite attack from any power that wishes to deal the United States a sudden blow.
    "It is clear that to make it safe the system of fortifications will have to be largely extended. Above all, it is clear that the American Navy will have to be strong enough to obviate all the possibility of losing command of the sea."