CHANNEL TUNNEL PROJECT

Evening Star, Issue 16514, 28 August 1917, Page 6

CHANNEL TUNNEL PROJECT

MR CHAMBERLAIN'S ACTION. Interesting rcmini'tcncOß of yhc Channel tunnel project were recently n-hu-wi by ..tr Henry Lucy. Ho sa.ys.ttat no fewer >-tau 170 members of th-6 Hotisa ol Commons, diuwn from all ftoctioiiis of pa:ties, are ,-ii'iX-ftd that the progress o* thn -war him demonstrated the- great advantage winch. would have scri'nad to Hiitaln u«d the Allies if a railway through a tunnel under the Channel had been in operation, available for tho transport of a-nnioH and .-:uppliea to France, and of the wounded back to England. Tho chndrman, of the- Commons Channel Tunnel Committee is seeking an opportunity to call upon the Government to declare their opinion on -th© subject. It was Mr Cinamberlain, at tho time president of tho Board of Trade, who stopped the tunnel works at Dover pushed forward by the oniei'fjctie and enterprising oli-airman 'of the south-eastern railway, Sir Edward Watkin, whosd constitutionally short temper was cut to tho quick by this interference, confided to mo tin-it in the event of the works being; permanently abandoned he would erect on tho Sid's a column- of stone lofty enough, to bo seen by nil vessels passing tip and down the Channel, visible on a clear day from tho coast of responsive France. From a sheet of paper, torn from liis waistcoat pocket, he read the proposed inscription. It- sot, forth how the tunnel had been, visited by the Prince of Wales Mid other Royal porwnages, by Mr Gladstone (at the time Prime .Minister), by tlvs Speaker of the HoujQ of Commons, and by a. considerable contingent of peers and oommonere, and now when all seemed prosperous and all the world applauded, work was peremptorily "stopped" by Joseph Chamberlain, of Birmingham. The entemriso was perforce abandoned, permanently-'' as it seemed, but the projected pillar never lifted its tall head from the beach of Dover. Three years later these born fighting men found ground for warm personal alliance in common opposition to Mr Gladstone's Home Rule crusade. One of Sir Edward Wat-kin's voung men, to-day filling an important position in railway management, tells me that while it is true Sir Edward did not carry out the larger scheme that filled and comforted his mind at'the time of his discomfiture, he did have erected a column composed of old iron rails set up on the crest of the upper cliff near the works of the Tunnel Oom- «""•■- It was only jecontly pulled down

and tho rails carted away, an alternative to the cost of ivpairniMf and keeping tim memento in order, i am uw oi the, I fear few, survivors of the visitors tc thej Channel Tunnel. It was a lions© of Commons company. including '.\ir Okidnioin-, ihon Prim© Minister, and Mr Arthur ,I'eel, Speaker, with Sir Edward Watkin in his favorite character as a personal conductorand host. The chasm was ailuroinafed by electric fight, itself at tiie time a novelty.