Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-22
TO IRELAND BY RAIL
Proposition to Build Tunnel Under
thu Irish Sea.
WOULD COST TEN MILLION POUNDS
A Considerable Saving of Time
in Crossing the Atlantic.
PLAN SOUNDS ALL RIGHT
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
LONDON, July IA, 1899.
Money is ready and plans are laid for n
tunnel that will make all tunnels dug
hitherto seem rather insignificant, and that
incidentally will bring the United States
and Eul ope several hours nearer. 1t is be-
lieved that it will begin a new era for Ire
land and will advance Belfast many steps
in the scale of Importance.
1t is proposed to perform all of these
wonders by drilling a $50 geo hole thir-
ty-fve miles through the rock under the
northern part of the Irish sea, through
which passengers could be whisked by
train, and could thus travel from London
to Galway or Queenstown without chang
ing cars.
All that the plan waits for now is a
guarantee from the British government of
3 per cent on the capital invested from the
time that the tunnel is in working order,
big meeting was held the other day in a
committee room of the house of commons
presided over by the Marquis of London
derry, former lord lieutenant of Ireland in
which the enterprise was doomed vigor-
ouSly by Lord Rosebery, the Earl of Spen-
Ger and many another important person
age. A deputation was sent to the first
lord of the treasury to talk persuasively to
him about the per cent part of the bust
the question.
If the government guarantees the inter
est the preliminary work will begin a once,
and it is expected that the tunnel will be
completed in about ten years from the
time the first sod is turned.
Lord Londonderry's Views
When the time comes to turn that sod
the man to do it really ought to be Lord
Londonderry, whose powerful influence has
been eXerted for it ever since it appeared
that the plan was practicable. To him,
therefore, l applied for information on the
subject, although lords of high degree are
not mIch given to granting interviews in
England.
Lord Londonderry's great town house in
aristocratic Park lane is as grim and for
bidding outside as it is spacious and luXu-
rous within. The marquis was in his Ii
brary, seated at a f1at-top desk, which one
must suppose to be the grandfather of all
desks, for it was big enough to make three
or four ordinary writing tables. Young
couples have started housekeeping before
now in house whose floor surface appear
ed no greater than the top of that desk. 1t
was covered with newspapers and maps, in
which the marquis was evidently much in
terested.
Il believe" he said, that the proposed
tunnel would bring a great change to Ire
land, and although. of course, it is an I'M
dertaking that would have appalled, the
gineer of generation ago, l am told that
there IS no InecndHlcal QlIIlculty To-Day tnal
stands in the way of it. The total length of
the tunnel under the sea would be twenty
five miles and the approaches on either side
would be about five miles each, making
thirty-five miles in all. OF course, that is
about three times as long any tunnel yet
built The Simp on is about thirteen miles,
isn't it? And the st. Gothard tunnel is
something like nine miles long. But it IS
astonishing what progress the engineers
have made, and it is likely that in the
course of the ten years it would take to
build the tunnel still further progress would
be made, so that the second half might be
done in less time than the first half would
take.
However, that is a matter for the ex-