LONDON TO CONTINENT BY TRAIN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 280, 15 August 1918, Page 9

LONDON TO CONTINENT BY TRAIN

WHY CHANNEL TUNNEL SHOULD BE CONSTRUCTED.' , With tho object of showing how the future of London and of the whole country depends on tho construction of a submanno railway between England and Prance, Sir Arthur Pell, chairman of the Houso of Commons Tunnel Committee, read a paper ibeforo the London Society recently.

As soon as they coull.pass through the Channel Tunnel, said Sir Arthur, express trains would bo able, to traverse France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Austria, and -Turkey us far as Constantinople without 'difficulty or change of .gauge. London had : lot yet,, horever"; appreciated what the tunnel would mean far it, nor how much its'future ns tho greatest city of tho Old World would depend on the completion of tho.work. After the.war there would be great and friendly rivalries between the nations of Europe. London could not stand still and' hope to reap its share by simply. erecting new .theatres,' bigger hotels, and great drapery stores. England was a small island, cut off from tho mainland by a stormy sea. Thus the isolation ot\ the coumtry from tho Continent was practically complete, and if the isolation continued after '.he war some othor capital would have to be found for 'the new era to which wo looked forward. It might be Paris or Vienna, or even 1 Berlin or Brussels; but it.must be a railway centro ' to and from which' would ruu the great world expresses. To reach such a railway centre passengers from the United States, Brazil, ' Argentina, and other wealthy South American Statei would go direct to Cherbourg, Rotterdam, or Hamburg. London would thus be side-tracked because of its insular isola-. tion That would be tho penalty which wo should pay for our neglect to build the Channel Tunnel Railiviy. _ The tiMmol would not only help our island and its capital, biit would be vital to, the continued pre-eminence and prosperity of our steamship lines, as carriers of the passenger, traffic to Europe. Ho was confident that the construction of the Franco-British Submarine Rnilway would be the earliest and greatest of all the works of peace which would bo be- 1 gun immediately the war is over—the first monuiuent to the enduring friendship with the -. nation. which' for four years had been fighting by our sido for the Üb«rty of tho world. "Peace will rise on this world again," said Baron Emile d'Erlanger, who presided at tho.annual meetingiof the Channel Tunnel Company, "and with it the day of the construction of tho Channel Tunnel will dawn." No moro striking example of British bulldog tenacity-in civil life had been given, ho said, than by that flmall group of men who, for some 5( vears,,had.made.the construction of the Channel Tun.nol their battle-cry, and had enlisted the majority of tho nation and the "elite" of tho ■■ nation under their banner. '■'•