Romance of Panama Canal 153 



government, not an easy matter by any 

 means. One of the first demands of the 

 U.S.A. government and one which was 

 very necessary to allow them complete free- 

 dom of action was the making over of a 

 belt of Colombian territory six miles wide 

 to come under the Stars and Stripes. 



It was a delicate matter to negotiate a 

 treaty which would not offend the suscepti- 

 bilities of the Colombians over the ceded 

 territory. But the leaders of the smaller 

 country were not unmindful of the rich 

 monetary bait; more particularly they saw 

 in the successful cutting of the canal an 

 increased prosperity for the country gener- 

 ally, whilst the towns and villages near the 

 canal zone would be benefited both during 

 the construction and later on when traffic 

 was passing regularly to and fro. 



Once the treaty had been made the 

 American engineers got busy with their 

 plans, which meant a virtual scrapping of 

 the work already carried out. They looked 

 far ahead, seeing that even if the cargo 

 ship did not increase greatly in length and 



