Haifa, Nov. 10.—In one of my former letters I described the nature of
the concession which had been obtained by some capitalists at Beyrout
for the construction of a railway from Haifa to Damascus, and of the
survey of the line, which had already been completed half-way to the
latter city. The matter has been the subject of a good deal of financial
intrigue, and the capital which was sought for in London has not been
forthcoming in consequence. A new element of uncertainty has just been
imported into the project by the agitation created by the proposal to
connect the Red Sea with the Mediterranean by means of a ship canal,
which, commencing at Haifa, should be cut through the plain of Esdraelon
to the valley of the Jordan, letting the waters of the Mediterranean
into the Ghor, as that valley is called, and connecting the lower end of
the Dead Sea with the Red Sea by a canal which should debouch at Akaba.
This project originated principally among British shipowners and
capitalists, who have hoped in this way to destroy the monopoly which M.
de Lesseps claims to possess of water communication between the
Mediterranean and the Red Sea across the Isthmus of Suez. As the
proposed canal does not touch the isthmus, the French company would have
no ground of complaint. As, however, great uncertainty still exists as
to the practicability of the scheme, a sum of £10,000 has been
subscribed by the promoters of the proposed company to make the
preliminary surveys, and to obtain the necessary permission from the
sultan to do so. According to the first accounts, his majesty set his
face against any survey of the kind proposed, but the latest advices
would go to show that he has changed his mind, and it would seem not
only that the requisite permission has been granted, but that the
surveying party are actually on their way to Port Said.
It will now be interesting to consider, by the light of our present
information, what are the chances of success, what is the nature of the
obstacles the scheme will have to encounter, and how it proposes to
overcome them, so far as they are known. In the first place, it does not
follow, because the sultan has granted permission for the survey, that
he will afterwards, supposing it to be found practicable, grant a firman
for the accomplishment of the work. The advantages he will derive from
it are: Easy access to his dominions in Arabia, which extend as far
south as Aden; an enormous sum of money, which will be paid to him in
compensation for about fifteen hundred square miles of land submerged,
chiefly government property, and a large annual income to be derived
from tolls on the canal, and the development of extensive tracts of
fertile country, especially to the east of the Jordan, which are now
inaccessible and unproductive. That such a canal would add immensely to
the resources of the empire, and be a source of great profit, there can
be no doubt. On the other hand, it would almost amount to the virtual
annexation of Palestine by England, whose influence in that country,
backed by the enormous expenditure of capital which would be involved,
would be supreme. It is a question, therefore, whether the sultan would
consider that the pecuniary advantage which he would gain would be
compensated by the political sacrifice which would have to be incurred.
In regard to the engineering difficulties, so far as they are known, the
only records of levels which we have of the elevation of the land
between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea are those made at different times
by three Frenchmen—Mons. Lartet, Mons. Vigne, and Mons. Luynes. These
only differ nineteen feet—the lowest being seven hundred and eighty-one
feet, the highest eight hundred; but it must be remembered that these
are not the result of actual survey, but of rough estimates, and there
may be depressions in the dividing ridge which may have escaped these
gentlemen's observation.^[2] The dividing ridge is said to be calcareous
rock—the summit level distant fifty-two miles from the Red Sea and
fifty-eight from the Dead Sea, which is nearly thirteen hundred feet
lower than the level of the ocean—and it is assumed that the engineering
work would be facilitated by the scour which would be caused by the sea
rushing down such a steep incline in a distance of one hundred miles. It
is not, however, proposed to let the full force of the ocean in from
this end. The operation of flooding the Jordan valley would be commenced
at Haifa; from this point to the sea-level in the Ghor is only
twenty-five miles. The highest point in the plain of Esdraelon is one
hundred and fifty-seven feet above the sea. Through this it is proposed
to cut a canal two hundred feet wide and forty feet deep. The volume of
water thus let in, it is calculated, would be regulated to an inflow
which would equal about twenty Jordans, and, allowing for evaporation,
it is estimated that in five years the Dead Sea and the whole valley of
the Jordan would be submerged to the sea-level.
The effect of this submergence would be, of course, to bury the Dead Sea
under twelve hundred feet of ocean, and to create an inland sea about
ninety miles long and from four to six wide. Jericho, Beisan (the
ancient Bethshean), and Tiberias would be the principal places
submerged, besides a few small villages. With the exception of Tiberias,
none of these are, however, of any importance. Tiberias contains a
population of over three thousand, chiefly Jews, and a Latin and Greek
monastery. Apart from the question of compensating this population, and
paying for the fertile lands which they occupy, a very important
political question enters into consideration. The French have been the
protectors of the Latin monastery at Tiberias from time immemorial, and
the Russians occupy the same position with regard to the Greek
monastery. Are these two powers, whose interests would be in different
ways vitally affected by the success of the scheme, likely to be induced
to consent to it by any proposal of pecuniary indemnification? Its
success would utterly ruin the Suez Canal and almost extinguish French
influence in Syria, while Russia, which now aims at the annexation of
Palestine and the occupation of Jerusalem, where her influence is at
this moment greater than that of any other European nation, would find
herself practically cut off from it by an inland sea, the private
property of her traditional enemy. In both countries the governments
could appeal to the religious sentiment of the people to support them in
resisting, even to a war if necessary, the flooding of the holy places
at Tiberias which they have guarded for so many centuries.
Nor would this sentimental feeling be confined to France and Russia.
Even in England and America there would be a strong objection to the
Lake of Tiberias, with the historic sites of Capernaum and the other
cities on its margin, which were the scenes of some of the most
remarkable ministrations of our Lord, being buried five hundred feet
deep beneath the sea. Curiously enough, the project is no less keenly
supported by one set of religionists than it is condemned by the other.
The former pin their faith to the prophecy contained in the
forty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel, eighth to tenth verses, where it is
predicted that “fishers shall stand upon the sea from En-gedi even unto
En-eglaim,” but even this would not be the case if the scheme were
carried out, for then En-gedi would be several hundred feet below the
surface of the sea.
The sanguine supporters of the scheme maintain that it can be
accomplished for eight millions sterling, while its opponents have
entered upon an elaborate calculation to prove that the lowest figure is
£225,573,648 and some odd shillings. Supposing, as seems not impossible,
that the one set prove too little, and the other too much, if it could
be done for fifty millions sterling it would pay a fair interest. The
last year's receipts of the Suez Canal, which cost twenty millions, were
£4,800,000. The whole length of the canal would be two hundred and fifty
miles, of which, however, only about one hundred and twenty would be
actual cutting, but cutting of a nature unparalleled in the history of
engineering. My own impression is that, both from a political and an
engineering point of view, it will be found to be impracticable; but who
can say in these days what science may not accomplish or what
combinations of the Eastern question may not arise to remove political
difficulties?
[2] Since the above was written the dividing range has been carefully
surveyed, and the lowest part found to be between six and seven hundred
feet above the level of the Red Sea.