Tunnel Sous La Manche?

Tunnel Sous La Manche?

Last week the dream of a 3,000-mile sub-Atlantic railway seemed to grow ever so slightly less mad, as Britons and Frenchmen got down again to dealing seriously with their half-century-old project of driving a double-track tunnel under the English Channel, 21 miles across. In London the French Ambassador, popular M. Aime Joseph de Fleuriau, officially declared at a dinner tendered him in the House of Commons, "When the British Government and the British Nation are ready to build the tunnel we will build it with them. We very much desire to do so!"

Historically it is of record that the tunnel project, first officially embodied in the Anglo-French protocol of May 3, 1875, has repeatedly been blocked by British fear of a subaqueous invasion, and the Englishman's jealous love of his "splendid isolation." Today however even the most insularly minded are beginning to see that invasion from the skies is the real danger and that a channel tunnel would be vastly advantageous to British commerce in time of peace and easily dynamitable in case of war with France. So pikestaff plain are the advantages of a sub-Channel railway that last week even that ruddy, insular, industrial squire, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, took up sturdy cudgels in its defense. When the House of Commons reassembled last week after a month-long holiday, the Squire-Statesman said:

"In view of the present wide public interest in the tunnel project the government has come to the conclusion that the time is ripe for a comprehensive reexamination of the question. We are anxious that a very thorough consideration should be made of the economic aspects of the matter in order that these may be weighed with imperial defence considerations and a decision reached on broad grounds of national policy." (See Parliament's Week.)

Paris buzzed with comment. Within 48 hours, members of the Comite Francais du Tunnel sous la Manche, originally chartered in 1875, met in bustling session. Since new blood was obviously needed after half a century of stagnation, the Comite called in and elected as their president kinetic M. Yves Le Trocquer, recently French Minister of Public Works (1920-25). As Vice President they chose M. Jules Cambon, distinguished statesman and brother of beloved Paul Cambon (1843-1524) who was for 22 years French Ambassador to His Britannic Majesty. When the Committee adjourned to banquet, Jules Cambon, raised a sparkling glass and cried: "On the day the tunnel is completed England and France will have found the real road to peace."

Later in the day French Tunnel President Yves Le Trocquer cried happily to correspondents: "Absolutely everything on the French side is ready! This time our British friends seem clearly to favor realization of the project. Only one thing remains : that is, for the British government to create as rapidly as possible an association for the construction and exploitation of the tunnel from that end."

Displaying blue prints and statistics proudly, M. Le Trocquer confidently stated that a double-track tunnel can be built in six years at a cost of three billion francs ($117,000,000) and would with the greatest ease earn 6%. Concluded M. Le President Le Trocquer: "With the tunnel in operation Paris and London will be only five hours apart."

Today the fastest and most expensive rail-water-rail crossing via Dover-Calais takes seven hours, while the cheap popular route via Southampton and St. Malo requires 18. To motor from Paris to Le Bourget, fly to Croydon, and motor to London takes two and a half hours.

So conclusive are these figures to "an American" that, last week, potent H. Gordon Selfridge, U. S. founder-owner of London's first and greatest "department store," promptly ordered extra advertising space in leading English dailies, commenced to "boom" and "sell" the tunnel idea.