CHANNEL TUNNEL

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 230, 23 June 1920, Page 7

CHANNEL TUNNEL

■£36,000,000 REQUIRED' AS CAPITAL COST.

In lecturing on "Tho Channel Tunnel to the Anglo-French Society in .umdon in Maroh, Baron limits B, d Manger estimated that tho approximate cost'of construction at prcsßnt pnwa would be <£35,000,000 to <£36,000,000. Viscount Burn ham was in tho chair.

Baron Emile d'Erlanger said that the offspring of the victory of Britain and France might well be the Channel Tunnel. Tho conquest of the air and the advent of the submarine had given proof that it was indispensable for England to be linked up with the Continent by an underseas line of communication, which she could close at will.' The approximate cost of the tunnel calculated on tho basis of present prices, would amount to about ,£35,000,000 to £30,000,000. This sum would have to be foun.l and disbursed over a period of six year 6. During the first two years the expenditure' need hardly exceed <28,000,0000 to .£10,000,000. There would not be any great difficulty m .getting together, in Ranee and m England, the .£8,000,000 of capital for such an undertaking, particularly.if, while leaving the work to private enterprise, the respective Governments took up, at the outset, a large proportion of the initial capital.- The share capital might be limited from .£8,000,000 to .£12,000,000, and the rest of the money could easily be raised on short-dated debentures. Now that the League of Nations.had been formed, a Channel Tunnel should bo registered uuder its aegis, and thus secure international protection.

The estimate of receipts prepared for Parliament by the lecturer's company were based entirely on the numbor of travellers who crossed the Straits of Dover, in 1913-11, namely, 1,300,000. This, at £1 per head, gave a total received of .£1,300,000, to which should be added .£300,000 in respect of luggage. For the transport of goods the calculation was .£200,000, thus making a grand total <Jf .£1.800,000. The working expenses could not exoeed 20 per cent., while the net receipts would be .£1,410,000. It would bo absurd to count on less than 3,000,000 passengers from the first year onwards. In taking the numbor of passengers at 2,600,000 it- would give an additional not receipt of JJl.2Bo,ooo—that 'was a total of ,£2,720,000.