New York, Feb. 20.
President Roosevelt, at the first press conference since he left the United States on holiday in the cruiser Tuscaloosa, said he was in the Pacific conducting a study of the Panama Canal zone and central American defence. This study had special relation to distant, rather than nearby canal protection, he added.
The conference was held aboard the United States destroyer Long. The President discussed defence problems at length with reporters, but pledged them to secrecy, He declared they might say he thought the whole policy of hemispherical defence affected each independent American republic as much as the United States.
Asked if he would meet European statesmen on the cruise, President Roosevelt laughed in a manner indicating there was nothing to the report. He said it would not be in the public interest to mention the specific localities he was visiting. He i dicated he will visit Costa Rican waters on Tuesday.
Mr. Roosevelt thought the effectiveness of the cana] defences had been doubted since his visit in 1994 and expressed the opinion that a third set of locks was much needed. He hoped Congress, at this session, would provide $15,000,000 to start construction of the locks. He announced he would inspect Pacific shore defences of the Panama Canal on the return'trip, no time for which nad been set. He will then confer with canal officials and the President of Panama—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.