BY "TUBE" TO FRANCE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2126, 18 April 1914, Page 8

BY "TUBE" TO FRANCE

THE CHANNEL TCKNEL SCHEME. ■ Strong support for tho -£.16,000,000 Channel Tunnol scheme was provided, at a- largo and influential mooting in Loudon recently, The initiative was taken by the House of Commons Channel 'i'lmnel Committto;.Hr.',ArtlHt'v M.P., presided,. aud.,Mr.-.H{inidr -Greenwood moYi'd a resqiatioii in favour <>f tlip pro-' jeefc ; •'•••■ ' ' ' ";'■'■ ,- ' : ■•.' . ' Sir ;.Arthur • Couaii .'.Doyle',..dealing with' tho na.vo.rand military arguments against tlio proposa , ), 1 " «iaid tHat isiiouH an invading aray' eiid.eaA'qur 'toedfflo through"' tho .tunnel they would find, themselves., strategically , 'as badly off as did Hia.raoh's army in the ' Bed Sea. (Laughter.) ' :'-' . ,-•■■ .General Sir Alfred Turner said that to pass an at-Eiy corps of twenty thousand men through the tunnel IoU trains, 7000 carriages and- trucks, and about 140 steam engines would' be required., and. even- if. there were- sufljefently long platforms, it would tato 12} days xo embark tho tfoops. What ■ wotild ■ t-lib English-be dain-g ail tliat:timo? (Laughtor.) Ihe only military objection that liold good tit.thoSo daysy-hq declared, was tMt a .large quantity of -explosives \voa!d have to be stored samowheroin the tnnnelj' and might' go , off at tho wrong time. \ (Laughter.) Baron Etiiile, d'Krknger {chairman of. tie Channel Tunnel Cbmpany)-- dealt with tlie finanoiai aspsst. .At tho pro6ont rate of increase, hfi said, the total number .of pg-ssengetß between England and tho Continent in .1920—.when'.'theyemiM liotto to ojwn tho tunnel if beßiiii to-day—would be 2 S -100,000,>5 per. cent.; of whom would tako.tiio tunnel in preferences to other '.routes.

His estimate of receipts was:— ■■ • £ 1,560,000 paserigers at 10s. per ' licod ■ .780.000 Luggage -...;....:....• :.. ; ■' 78,000 Postal eorvico. (at least) 10.000 Goods "traffic (say)' ~...-... 640,000 Total' >• 1. , i £1,538,000 The cost of working'a lino -which was ottly a. conuectihg link be-Mvetui two great routes, and bad only terminals, would ijo). exceed sonio 25 per cent., he added, and that would- leave £1,200,000 profit on a.,.capital of £10,000,000 maximum, or over 7 per cent, . Tho resolution was carried.