The Channel Tunnel : Royal United Service Institution : important discussion.

Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Channel Tunnel : Royal United Service Institution : important discussion. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    5/12 page 3
    that we can really have no conception of the enormous development of commerce that will result. I have been in France lately, and have come in contact with one or more French naval officers ; and they said to me that if only the Tunnel were made, it would mean that England would recover her trans-Atlantic passenger traffic, because no one would think of embarking at Hamburg, Antwerp, Cherbourg and other places if they could go by land to Liverpool, and so get the shortest cut across the ocean. The people of France have such an inherent dislike to the English Channel, that nothing will induce them to go upon it, if they can avoid it. These French naval officers went further, and said the first thing that would happen, as soon as the Channel Tunnel was completed, would be the creation of a large and an important port at Dover, or, if Dover does not like it, at Folkestone, which would become the distributing centre for goods over all the northern portion of Europe; and I believe that would be the case. The construction of a tunnel would give the necessary fillip to our trade, which anybody, looking at the statistics, knows that we badly need. We used to lead in the manufacture of iron, steel and other things, but we are now taking a back seat, and unless something is done, we are bound to go down. I believe this Tunnel will be the solution to a very great extent of the difficulty that arises at the present time. The fear expressed by some people, that if the Tunnel is created, we shall be no longer an island, is, as the Admiral says, a “ bogie.” We do not call an island less an island because it has a bridge on it. With the Channel Tunnel, we shall remain an island, but with the advantage of not being isolated. We can cut the link which would connect us with the Continent whenever we like ; but the creation of the link would, I believe, enormously develop the commercial and passenger traffic between the two countries. So far as engineering questions are concerned, the facilities for blocking, and, if necessary, destroying, the
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3