The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-01-15 00:00:00

THE CHANNEL TUNNEL SCHEME.

The Maas has the following leader on the Channel Tunnel
Scheme :

The scheme for a Submarine Railway under the
Straits of Dover, whieh was revived about two years
ago after it had lain in abeyance for some time is
rapiAly taking shape and consistency. An Act of
Pa-liament wae pegged last Session empowering a com-
pany to acquire lands for the purposes of preliminary
investigatiow on the English side of the Charnel, and,
at the same time, the French Assembly gave corres-
ponding powers to a French company. The time
allowed for commencing these) preliminary operations
is only twelve months, so that we shall probably
shortly witness a resolute attempt to explore the
bed of the Channel by actual excavation. In a
Blue Book which has just been published, containing
the discussions and correspondence on the subject, there
will be found among the documents submitted by the
French Government te the English Cabinet, a very
complete and able exposition cf the prospects and con-
ditions of the enterprise, Bo far as they can at present
be determined. The members of the French Com-
mission to whom the project was refried_ do not
ignore. the difficulties and hazards inherent in the
scheme; but they unanimously recommend that the
experiment should be made, and that the sanction of
the Government, though without subvention or
guarantee of interest, should be accorded to it. The
attitude assumed by our own Government towards the
English Channel Tunnel Company is substantially
similiar, and the' legislation of last year in both
countries gives practical effect to the recommenda-
tions of the French Coinniission.
It is proposed that the actual Submarine Tunnel
should start from. St. Margaret's Bay, a little to tke
east of Dover, and should reach France at a point some-
what to the west of Calais, between that town and the
village of Sangatte; and it is at these two points that
the preliminary excavations which have been authorized
will he made. The longitudinal section of the Tunnel
would take the form of an arch of ahnost imperceptible
curvature; the drainage being thus conveyed to each
end by gravitation, and carried through properly con-
structed culverts to wells at convenient inland points,
from which it would be pumped to the surface.
On quitting the bed of the sea the Tunnel itself
would rise by an easy gradient to the surface at some
distance from the coast ; and the ordinary junctions
might be effected with existing lines of railway on
either sF Such is a rough outline of the proposed
scheme, d certainly on paper it look feasible enough;
but ire ,ld be idle to owe look the enormous difficul-
ties o ev ry kind—financial, engineering, mechanical,
politi al nd even strategical—which will have to be
surmou:. It is, however, almost inevitable that
such an experiment should, sooner or later, be
seriously made: " Impossible " is a word long ago
erased from the engineering dictionary. The Suez
Canal is one accomplished impossibility; the Mout
Cenis Tunnel is another; and the success of the li3t.

Gothard Tunnel, in some respects a still more for- mounting. A few minutes were accordingly spent
midable enterprise, is already practiCalty assured, enjoying the prospect, and then the Royal visitor de-
But to construct a Submarine Tunnel of :over thirty parted. All was not over, however, even as far as
miles in length is an enterprise of %ere- exceptional the temple was concerned ; form portly priest, whose
difficulty. Even if it were made to-morrow, is it cer- eyes twinkled with delight at having been introduced
tam n that ordinary travellers would useeit ? The ex- to the Prince, proposed that the girls should dance
perience of the Alpine Tunnel would,' at first sight once more in honour of the occasion. Whereupon they
seem to give a triumphant answer to this question, began the low chant and curious shuffle, the jingling of
But a tunnel seven miles helength is "...every different bangles mud the beating of sticks which' I have
ostdes-
thing
A :frs one near)lys five'stioses lonewhere a cribed in a eirevious letter. There was a conspicuously
eloretkdown in the middle would leave he travellers ugly man who sang, or, to be more just, howled vigor
-
over fifteen miles from succour and assistance. This, ously. There was a piper, and, you may be sure, a
however, is a difficulty wloch can only be solved large gathering of sin ctatore. The audience, in
-ambulando- if theeprotnotere are content to Fele the faetr seemecr to' spring out of the ground,
risk, toe public will dertainly use their Tunnel as soon so suddenly did it appear, and so numerously.
as its security and conveniencehavebsendetnenstrated. In less than a minute there must have been an assein-
The really hazardous and incalculable element in blage of EOtGB hundreds, men, women, and children,
the scheme is the geological structure of the material all crowding reeled tosfee the dance. Then, as though
through which TheeTminel-will save to pass. The '132- sonatTpreconcerted signal, the great doors of the
, extereel geological aspect of this coasts which face pagoda opened, and in bundled, all together, heltr-
eer other across the Straits of Doer is similar enough. skelter, a number of elephants, a sacred buffalo or two,
We all tree" the chalk cliffs which meets:aeon eithe.r eselookey, -and a great crowd of -people of ell ages me
suto of the-ChantieW sind, so—farnrreuundingsan givF—animals made quickly for their restieg -placea. The
us information, it seems that the bed of the sea people increased-the dense mass of onlookers, and we,
between the two points is composed of the same white to avoid suffocation, struggled through the perspirieg
chalk. This white chalk, however, although it pro- mass into the open air, much to the disappointment
belly extends to a considerable depth, is known to be of the chief of the temple, who pre-ently retired and
so porous and full of fissures that it would be dangerous wrote a 'ring letter of eight quarto pages, which he
to rely on it, and it seems impossible to eliminate the forwarded to those who represented the English press.
chance of a sudden irruption and collapse. Fortu-
nately, below the white chalk there is found a thick
layer of gray chalk of a far more uniform consis-
tency, and this is said to be easy to work, and without
serious risk. This gray chalk exists on both sides
of the Channel in the same relative position; and
there is fair reason to hope that it is also continuous
throughout the bed of the Straits. On the existence)
of this continuous layer of gray chalk- the whole sue-
ceas of the Channel Tunnel depends. Engineers and
geologists are sanguine on the point, but at best their
opinion rests on conjecture, and can only be verified
by actual experiment. Should the white chalk make
a sudden dip, the excavation would be fruitless; should
harder rocks make their appearance, the coat of
piercing them may swallow up all prospect of profit.
Indeed, the general financial aspect of the scheme is
far from encouraging. On this point the comment
of the Board of Trade is frank, not to say
brusque :—"As to the prospect of obtaining any
income from the traffic sufficient to pay interest
on the outlay, they cannot, looking to the large slim
required, and to the competition by sea (which must
always eeist, in respect af _Merchandise, if not of pas-
sengers), take a very sanguine view. This, however,
so long as the Government is not asked for money, is
a matter for the promoters rather than for them."
The horror of sea-sickness, with the other discomforts
of the Channel passage, is the chief motive on which
the promoters must rely for a profit; will it suffice to
pay a remunerative dividend on such an enormous
outlay? Of course, the transport of merchandise
will contribute its share ; but it is precisely
on this 'point that it is impossible to guard
against ruinous competition. It should he re-
collected that here the experience of the Alpine
Tunnels is of no avail, for they open entirely new and
abridged channels of communication, and there is no
competition to speak of. No dottlbt the political and
international difficulties of jurisdiction and control can
be surmounted by negociation and mutual arrangement ;
but we look in vain in the Blue Book for anything ap-
proaching an adequate discussion of the great strategi-
cal difficulities inherent in the scheme. It is true that
each Government announces its intention of reserving
its entire freedom of action as to the measures it
may think fit bo take for protecting the entrance to
the Tunnel and, as is somewhat significantly added,
for rendering it useless in time of war. No doubt
proper defensive works would suffice to guard
against a camp de main by means of the Tunnel it-
self; but, if these were taken in rear, as they might
be as regards England, by a successful invasion on
the East Coast, what becomes of England's command
of the sea ? This is a remote contingency, it will
be said ; but all our defensive measures have re-
ference to similar remote contingencies, and we
cannot afford to leave to a possible enemy an unas-
sailable line of land communications with his base.
We cannot but think that England's defensive
security absolutely requires that, if the Tunnel is
made, there must be provided means of rendering it
swiftly and, for the time, irreparably useless, as, for
instance, by flooding its entire length in case of
need. The constructors of such works hold the posi-
tion of those who build houses within range of a for-
tress; they take their own ride, and they know before-
hand that they must yield to the imperious necessities
of warfare. Yet these indispensable strategical con-
ditions must of necessity react upon the financial diffi-
culties of the scheme. The Company will have to
take the risk of complete and indefinite suspension of
traffic, and to hear the expense of the very costly re-
moval of the obstruction agreed upon, of whatever
nature it may be. Still, as these difficulties have born
got over in the somewhat analagous case of the two
Alpine Tunnels, we suppose they are capable of solu-
tion. After all, the real difficulties of the scheme
reduce themselves to two, which may be very simply
stated—ls it feasible, and will it pay? The first ques-
tion can only be answered by experiment, and the
second, at best, by more or less plausible conjecture;
but those who have given most attention to the subject
have provisionally answered them both by a not very
hesitating affirmative.
We by no means desire to discourage a scheme
which is, at least, a credit to the enterprise of those
who have promoted it. The names of M. Michel
Chevalier and Sir John Hawkshaw are a sufficient
guarantee that their fellow-countrymen who are
associated with them in this scheme are anything
but visionaries and enthusiasts, and when practical
men of great experience and ability are ready to
engage in so gigantic an enterprise, they deserve
our warmest sympathy. But we must not for all
that shut our eyes to difficulties and obstacles; the
questions we have raised are suggested, almost
entirely by the discussions reported in the Blue
Book, and even those who have most strongly recom-
mended the project have only ventured to offer a
hesitating and tentative solution. We shall await
with great interest the results of the preliminary
excavations. for it is admitted that on the materials
they offer for a solution of the geological problem the
whole success of the enterprise must depend. The
financial question will have to be resumed and
fully discussed when the final and definite project is
before us. Meanwhile it is satisfactory to observe
that the French Government are by no means dis-
posed to let the Channel Tunnel project divert their
attention from the more immediately practical ques-
tion of improving the existing means of maritime
communication between the two countries. They
prefer a tunnel to the rival proposals of a railway'
ferry, a lofty bridge, or a submarine tube, and pro-
bably they do so for very good reasons; but they admit
that there is room for improvement in the harbours of
Calais and Boulogne, and that such impsovement is of
immediate and pressing importance, It is not on this
side of the Channel that the chief obstacles to a fatrly
comfortable passage exist, for vessels of almost any
tonnage can moor alongside the Admiralty Pier at
Dover. We do not hear complaints of the longer and
more stormy passage between Holyhead and Kingstown,
such as are constantly reaching us in regard to the dread
"middle passage" of the Straits of Dover. The reason
is simply that in the former case the harbours are large
and the beats commodious, while in the latter, even if
we build large and comfortable boats, they cannot get
into the French harbours. The experiments with the
Bessemer and the Castalia show that there is no lack of
enterprise on our side, and the latter, at any rate, is—
at least, in principle—a success, notwithstanding the
rather ill-natured competition she has had to contend
against. If the Channel passage could be effected in
comfortable and roomy steamers, in which a reasonable
regard was paid to the ordinary wants of human beings
at sea, the transhipment might be rendered only a little
more irksome to passengers than a change of trains on
land is generally felt to be. The French Government
announces its intention of pushing forward adequate
measures for remedying its share of the existing evil.
If this is effectually done, men's views as to the neces-
sity and convenience of a Channel Tunnel will,
perhaps, undergo a change. At all events, without
waiting for the issue of so costly and hazardous an
experiment, it is as well, in the meantime, to eichauet
the ordinary and well-known means of removing an
acknowledged and, among the minor ills of life, an
almost intolerable evil.