THE CHANNEL TUNNEL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 92, 20 July 1916, Page 8

THE CHANNEL TUNNEL.

It is many years since the proposal to construct a tunnel under the Channel between England and Franco was made. In ISS], the South-Eastern Bailway Company obtained an Act fn.ni the House "I' Commons giving them powers for ex])erimeiua] borings ami other work.- i» connection with a submarine tun-el. I'ndev this Act three shafts weiy sunk, the most importani being near t ; > ; he west end of Shakespeare's Cliil' ' Dover) where a tunnel 7 feet in diameter was forined for a distance of over a mile. Owing to ihc action of the llaard ol Trade, the boring ceased in July, ISS2, when 202 U yards of tunnel hvd been made. Since then nothing in the shape of actual tunnelling lias been arc- said to lie still "practicable," am! could be easily be converted into parr of [be permanent tunnel if Parliament should decree that the work might proceed. On the French side lof the Channel similar works have been , done, hut the exp< rimcntal works undertaken, and' the experimental tunnel on that side is about the same length as that on the English shore. The strata are more or less alike in character on both sides. The borings on the English coast-line have struck down to a depth of 19H0 feet. Coal was found at a depth of 1200 feet, but the primary object of the Channel Tunnel Company was to connect England ami Franco by a railway track, and years ago it parted with i'.s corporate interests in Kent coal to a seperate syndicate. The matter erne more became a living issue, when Raron d'Erlangor and Ids financial friends opened the question early in L 907, and it may he that ii will become more so alter the war.