CHANNEL TUNNEL

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIV, Issue 20982, 10 March 1938, Page 6

CHANNEL TUNNEL

| PROPOSAL REVIVED ELECTION FORECASTS (From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON. January 18. Again this year many people have repeated the old mistake of assuming that a new knight may use his title from the day it is announced in the Honours List. Actually, of course the Honours List merely notifies the King’s intention of conferring the title, and the recipient remains plain “Mr” until he is “dubbed” a knight. Many of those whose honours were announced on January 1 will have to wait nearly two months before receiving them from the King. A few. who happen to be abroad, must wait much longer. This year's numerous honours will be conferred in three “instalments.” Recipients of higher Orders will be invested with them at Buckingham Palace about the end of February. Besides this investiture the King will hold two levees at St. James' Palace during the same month. Most of the military and “official” honours will be conferred at a fulldress levee. This will be followed a few days later by an informal levee, when civilian Orders will be conferred. The first levee will provide a gorgeous spectacle of colourful uniforms. The second will be a drab morning-dress affair, but the people commanded to it are likely to be better known to the public than those entitled to wear uniform. Election Forecasts Rumours of an election towards the end of this year are becoming more and more insistent. Most of the rumours, it should be said, come from anti-Government quarters, where it is feared that Mr Chamberlain will make a surprise appeal to the country before opponents have time to collect their forces. Government spokesmen deny that they are preparing for an election. Nevertheless, there has been a significant speed-up in the adoption of candidates and the planning of campaigns. Two successive increases in the monthly returns of unemployment, suggesting the beginnings of a slump, are factors which may decide the Government to have an early election. But Mr Chamberlain is believed to be awaiting the outcome of two important international negotiations. If he can conclude a pact with Italy, France and Germany, followed by a trade agreement with the United States, he will be able to make a very strong appeal for electoral support. Forecasts are that the National Government would be returned to power again if it succeeded in concluding those two agreements. Channel Tunnel Once More Yet again the proposal for a tunnel under the Channel between England and France has come to the fore. This time, however, it is the French Government who are urging the scheme. Hitherto its championship has been left to a few unofficial enthusiasts. Official opinion here has generally frowned on the project, because it is feared that a tunnel would make England cease to be an island and lay her open to invasion. But since air power has become the key to modern warfare this argument has lost most of its force. Expense still remains a big drawback. To construct a tunnel would cost about £15.000,000. To maintain it another £lOO,OOO would have to be spent every year. Advocates of the scheme say that this would be more than covered by profits from traffic through the tunnel. Is There No Average Man? A London newspaper is searching—and searching in vain—for the average Englishman. A statistical and observational survey indicates that the “average” male in this country is a brown-haired, brown-eyed, 33-year-old man, just under sft Bins in height, weighing just over 11 stone, and suffering slightly from rheumatism. He is married to a wife two years younger than himself, and they have one child. Their income is the surprisingly high one of over £6 a week. Having established these and other characteristics of the Average Englishman, the newspaper is now hunting for somebody to fit the description and offering a suitable reward. But although this newspaper has over 2,000,000 readers, it has so far failed to find one who exactly fills the bill. The Average Englishman, in fact, does not appear to exist. Everyone is extraordinary, if not unique, in some respect. The New Divorce The rush to take advantage of the new "easier divorce” Act seems to be confined almost exclusively to poor people. Within ten days of the Act coming into force over 1000 people applied for “Poor Persons” facilities, by which the legal costs are greatly reduced. Normally only about 3000 Poor Persons’ applications are received in the course of a whole year. But the introduction of desertion, cruelty and insanity as new grounds for divorce appears to have had no effect on the numbers of well-to-do applicants. The reason undoubtedly is that an “arranged” divorce has always been so easily obtained by those able to pay for “hotel evidence” that such people do not need new grounds for divorce in order to end unhappy marriages. To thousands of poor people, however, the new Act now offers the first chance of freedom. Many may have had good grounds for divorce under the old law, but have not been able to pay detectives to watch unfaithful spouses. Problem Far “Dev.” Mr de Valera, visiting London to discuss the major issues between Great Britain and Eire, will be faced also with a minor problem which may call for some diplomacy to settle. It is the custom of Dominion ministers spending more than 36 hours in London to sign the Visitors Book at Buckingham Palace. The custom has become an established convention. For the Irish premier to break the convention might be considered a discourtesy in London; fot him to call on the King might anger his followers at home. On previous occasions Mr de Valera Las found a way out of the difficulty by staying less than the customary time in the capital. In 1932, when he came over to discuss the Oath and

Annuities his visit lasted scarcely 12 hours. Younger Army Chiefs By awarding some of the highest posts in the Army to men in their forties and early fifties, following on his changes in the Army Council, Mr HoreBelisha has shown clearly his determination to give the best men their chance, irrespective of length cf service. Merit is to count for more than mere seniority The move is welcomed in nearly every quarter and is regarded as especially encouraging to the younger officers.