Fears Our Canal Monopoly.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 1, 1912:
Paris Paper Declares France Must Awake to the Menacing Danger.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    PARIS, Aug. 31.— Notable among the articles condemning the Panama Canal act which all sections of the French press continue to publish dally is an exposition in Gil Blas of the French interest menaced by the alleged violation of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty.
    After describing the probable effect of the new law on English, Canadian, and German commerce, Gil Bias says: "It is much to France's interest not to allow the United States to make a National trust of the maritime trade through the canal.
    "Cherbourg and Brest are ports of call on the European route to the canal. The French possessions in the Antilles and the islands in the Pacific can and must benefit by their position in the direct lines of communication opened up by the canal.
    "In this respect French and British interests are identical. French opinion must be made to realize the extreme gravity of the affair, if only to adjudge still more guilty those who, having first conceived the greatness of the enterprise and held the control in their handr not only brought on ruin and scandal, but compelled France to leave the commercial profit of the canal in foreign hands."