The Channel Tunnel.
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By"The Inspector."
This is the heyctay of the faddist, strange as it may seem. The man with the one idea has come into his own with a vengeance. Though not yet immune from his chronic state of disappointment, the inventor, who cannot help it is nearly hysterical in his excitement at the opportunities the nation's straits are bringing him. A truce to paraffin carburetters, to patent sprags and wheels that will not skid, he flies at other game now ; he lives in a riot of sausage balloons, of chain shell, of periscopic perplexities. Re and his brother in arms, the faddist, are libertines licensed by the public state of susceptibility. No scheme too .wild, no theory too dead to be resurrected in these days of war. Exactly why we are all so tolerant to. all these exhumed skeletons it is beyond my capacity to suggest. We, maybe, are too obsessed with the great big job in hand, with our millions of men and money, to spare time for half-jesting intolerant criticism. Or perhaps we dare not deny the most unpromising proposal a further hearing, for fear it prove to contain the germ of something profoundly anti-German. This is ,the. day for conspicuity—we all love the publicity of the uniform, we all carry our official handbags with the G.R. outwards. Our new mood even makeaus tender to a Eustace Miles and his years of patient lentil propagation; we,. surgeonridden; take a, more bodily interest in Barker the Bone Setter. Some of them have had to go far for their audiences, but even in South Australia Adela, Pankhurst has "atialt-found people interested enough to shy eggs at her. Roger Casement was able to roitsementhusiasin of a kind in Berlin. The whole world is in a very receptive mood. Never was there such a chance for the hobby riders. Some at least of the old-tried controversies will achieve solution. We shall most certainly have a Channel Tunnel, even if the Peace Conference is not conducted in Esperanto.
That it may not be completedin the lifetime of the majority of us in no way lessens our interest in the possible consummation of this century-old proposal. That, when the hole under the Straits of Dover is finally dug, much of its -promised utility may have disappeared in no way deters us. Accustomed now to a thousand million War Loan, alike as to no potatoes, the stupendous cast, the colossal labour involved, suggests no hesitation: We are in a mood greedy of undertaking. We shall most decidedly get the Tunnel we deserve. I think I should feel a certain personal affront,: in some way, if I and the rest of us were disappointed of it now. Its protagonists will certainly have the country at their hack ; although but a few will realize its actual economic effect.
With all this talk of severing, by submarine, England's main artery, it would indeed be a comforting thought if we could picture a more substantial one laid deep below the Channel's depths, something physical, continuous. Britain is tied to Europe at present by the slenderness of electric cables and nothing more. A tube, with railway track and perhaps a motor highway through, would be a comforting thought to the more nervous of us, with IT-boats prowling unseen. In our present mood we should imagine we were holding France by the hand • we should not feel so pointedly that the war is being "held!' in another country.
This is our state of mind now, and I am not concerned here to analyse the economic and international effect of the digging, but rather to set down a few c50 random thoughts suggested by the occasional news paragraphs one comes across of renewed Channel propaganda.. Shall we,deel in similar mood when peace has reigned for a while again'? Will the scheme have the same Public sympathy once the troops are all safely back in Blighty? Is our ancient geographical isolation a thing to be lightly imperilled, Suppose, sonic day, and God send it may be never, we again fell out with France, as we have in days gone by. We who are interested in the use of the roads are likely to be as much affected as anyone. And it is up to us to form some sane and stable body of opinion as to the use, the desirability of the whole thing, while others are busy with an uncritical wel come.
Does it occur to you, as it has to me, that it might, on the scores of labour and expense alone, only be feasible to provide' for railway •tracks, • to excavate no road highway from England to France ? Would a roadway be of any very lasting benefit over and above the rail. The length of the tunnel would be at least 25 miles with no other possibility of ventilation than from the ends. Steam wagons and petrol lorries and cars might feasibly. be forbidden. And certainly. I, were at the turnstile, _would admit no known paraffin-engined chassis—unless under penalty that it would never come back. 'The limitation of speed would be that of the slowest in the procession, and that would 'be, in all probability, three or four miles an hour. The tunnel trip would be one of seven or eight hours, barring misadventure. No temptation to Monaco-bound tourists or week-ending joy-riders! Again, assuming the traffic, to be prac. tically continuous, as it well might be, there might be. 7000 separate vehicles en route on the tunnel at any one time. The possibilities of a breakdownihalf way are stupendous—and with half the drivers' language French, the question of ventilation would certainly have to come up for further consideration.
No, the beautiful vision of a run into France and back on a summer's evening, of a week-end by car with your golf-clubs to Le Tocquet is not a very practical one. The railway .will probably be the only connection, and lcfrries and ears will have to be loaded on trucks, if for no other reason than speed and certainty.. The haulage would undoubtedly need to be electric. Swiss tunnelling has solved,as great problems..
But what, if when finished,' 'we were using the air to an extent which at any rate seems possible. In . our present mood to adopt anything strange might we not imagine aerobuses and plane panteeinnicons long ere the miners met beneath mid Channel. We who use the roads, and shall use them more and more, are not certain to prove the most ardent supporters Of the Tunnel scheme.