The Inquiry Commission has reported that the Panama Canal could
be completed for 236,000,000, but "the material and preparations of the old Company are reckoned as amounting to at least half" of the sum required. The Com- mission think that the best solution would be a guarantee of interest by the maritime States. "Is this conception," they ask, "a dream P Serious minds think it practicable, and both in Europe and America it has found supporters An effort in this direction would, reflect honour on the Govern- ment taking the initiative." Most assuredly it is a dream. Either the old Company will be bought out and the work completed by the United States, or, while the ruins of the Panama works are left as the biggest "folly the world has ever seen, the Nicaragua Canal will be constructed by the Company which has already begun operations. That plan has a great deal to be said for it. Out of the total 170 miles, 121 will be free navigation either in Lake Nicaragua, the San Juan River, or the " basins " formed by the flooding of two valleys. The works are estimated at £11,000,000, but this, of course, is not likely to be anything approaching the actual cost.
