CHANNEL TUNNEL IDEA

Evening Star, Issue 21824, 13 September 1934, Page 15

CHANNEL TUNNEL IDEA

OLD ADVOCACY REVIVED KEEN SUPPORT IN FRANCE After the Mersey tunnel —the English Channel ? Perhaps! Informal discussions have taken place, and these, it is stated, are lilicly to lead very soon to a reconsideration of the whole problem of the construction of a tunnel to link Great Britain with the Continent. Two factors have caused the non’ moves: (1) The wonderful success of the Mersey engineering feat, to which the -King has given his “blessing”; (2) pressure exerted by commercial interests in Prance, who are now declaring that, given the necessary British sanction, they will offer to finance the whole project themselves. Advocates of the Channel tunnel state that there would be many advantages to Britain which would far outweigh the strategical considerations which have in the past caused the Government to veto the scheme. ft is five years now since the Government last decided against it after a. committee appointed by the House of Commons had reported in favour of a link between Britain and France. Fifty thousand British workmen, it is claimed, woidd receive employment for several years, and there would be valuable orders for the coal and iron industries, as well as for hydraulic and other machinery. Sir Arthur Fell, former chairman of the House of Commons Channel Tunnel Committee, told the 1 Sunday Chronicle ’ on July 21: “ If the French had their way the tunnel would be started immediately. By intensive propaganda •over there they have educated public opinion to snob an extent that the public demand for a tunnel is continually reflected in the French Press. “ Indeed, the French arc so anxious to get on with the scheme that they would finance the whole project themselves without hesitation. There is plenty of money waiting to bo put into the venture, which could begin straight away if the Government would only give its consent.” ~ Lord Cecil, when interviewed, stud: “ I am definitely in favour of a Channel tunnel.” But Sir Robert Perks, who was associated with the project for nearly half a century, and was extremely enthusiastic in the early days, says he now believes that air traffic has considerably affected the necessity for a tunnel.