The exigencies of war have imposed a close censorship on defense measures and activities in the Canal Zone during the past year. The Rosoff Panama Construction Company has been awarded the contract for building the third set of locks. The U-boat attacks on Aruba and Curaçao, only some 700 miles distant (see VENEZUELA), which showed that German submarines had been able to break through the outer chain of Caribbean defenses, brought sharp realization of the dangers confronting this vital and highly vulnerable area. One of the most important defense lines protecting the Canal is the Guatemala air base from which U. S. Army bombers have been operating, with permission of President Jorge Ubico. Bases to be constructed on the Santa Elena peninsula in Ecuador and on the Galápagos Islands (see ECUADOR) have an important bearing also on Canal defense. Secretary Knox, in visiting the Canal Zone in September, praised the cooperation of the Army and Navy in defense of the Panamanian sea frontier and the Canal Zone. All shipping passing through the Canal is carefully searched and subject to wartime regulation.
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