1000 MILLIONS

Grey River Argus, 12 August 1937, Page 10

1000 MILLIONS

ARCHITECTS’ PLAN. FOR A BOOM. LONDON, June 26. A four-year plan for Britain which, it is claimed, would assorb practically the whole of Britain’s unemployed, has been prepared by Major Ernest Matthews, secretary of the Institute of Registered Architects. The scheme would means the spending of £1,000,000,000—but would cost the nation nothing at all and would ultimately show a huge increase in the real wealth and spending power of the nation. “One of the principal parts of the scheme,” Major Matthews said, “would be the construction of great under-sea tunnels, linking the British Isles and the Continent.” There would be one tunnel to Calais, via the Goodwin Sands, one linking Scotland and ’ Ireland, one joining Hampshire with the Isle of Wight, and others across the Thames and Forth estuaries. “These tunnels, which are practical architecturally and constructionally, would cost about £160,000,000,” the major disclosed, “but it is obvious that they would yield a permanent revenue from road and rail dues, and would therefore mean no actual charge on the taxpayer. "Another of the major items would be land reclamation on those wide coastal areas on the Thames, the Goodwin Sands, and elsewhere, which are at present uninhabitable. New towns, new industries would arise on the reclaimed lands, and would naturally absorb very many thousands of the workless.”