Tunnel?

A meeting of the Committee of Imperial Defense was summoned at London to consider the building of a sub-Channel tunnel to connect Britain and France.

Premier MacDonald took the chair; among those present were high naval, military and air force officers, ex-Premiers Balfour, Asquith, George, Baldwin.

The result of the meeting was not made public, but it was understood that the high officers of the services were against building the tunnel because of the impossibility of defending it during time of war.

Some 400 members of Parliament, in favor of the project, were pressing for debate of the subject in the Commons and there was a general feeling abroad that the Imperial Defence Committee was not to be allowed to kill the scheme.

Although the existence of the tunnel would cut the cost of transportation to and from the Continent, and reduce the time taken to travel the distance between London and Paris, critics of the project averred:

1) That the building of the tunnel would not appreciably help to reduce unemployment, because labor needed would be of a highly skilled character.

2) That the tunnel would cost about $130,000,000 and that its operation could never pay fixed charges and cost of maintenance.

3) That a submarine tunnel, 30 miles in length, has never yet been built.