NOT KEEN ON TUNNEL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 924, 18 March 1930, Page 9

NOT KEEN ON TUNNEL

PAPERS DISCUSS ENGLISH CHANNEL SCHEME LITTLE CHANCE OF PROFIT British Official "Wireless RUGBY, Sunday. The report of the Channel Tunnel Committee is discussed in all the newspapers. “The Times” says: ‘‘The Channel tunnel is not to be compared with tiie Suez Canal or with the Panama Canal, or even with such a venture as the first London tube. For ali those undertakings, private enterprise was prepared to venture, and if it had losses to suffer there was, as events proved, a genuine economic gain. The Channel tunnel presents no such certainty of ultimate economic gain or of private and public enrichment. It displays a contingent hope of profit to the one who undertakes the work, and a slender prospect of an increase in a small section of the nation’s trade. The “Manchester Guardian,” which favours the tunnel, criticises the recommendation that it should be carried out without Government assistance. With or without the State, however, if the project is economically sound, says the paper, it should be attempted. The “Daily Telegraph” and the "Morning Post” show no enthusiasm for the project. The “Daily News” says the strength of the scheme is the extreme weakness of the arguments against it. The “Daily Mail” says the report justifies the building of the tunnel now.

The “Daily Chronicle” also warmly supports the scheme.