The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-09-17
at Last Gives Serious
Thought to the Channel Tunnel

Kansas city Star: The project of
boring a tunnel under the Straits IF
Dover between England and France
has occupied the minds of capitalists
and military strategists periodically
for more than a century. Whenever
the discussion has been revived 1T has
been consistently characterized by a
favorable attitude on the part of the
French Int a correspondingly un-
favorable attitude on the part of the
various British cabinets. Now the
great question rises again in a year
which makes the successful culmina-
ton OF several of the greatest feats of
engineering ever undertaken by man
Kind. The world again waits Eng
lands decision.
Word comes from London that nine
ty members Of parliament. constituting
a committee of imperial defense have
taken the tunnel proposition under ad-
Vlsement, encouraged by a cautious
declaration from Premier Asquith to
the effect that. the government was
open % suggestions. French
gineers and financiers are uniformly
enthusiastic over the idea.
First Suggestion in 1902.
AS far back as 1902 the dream of a
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occurred to a Frenchman, an engineer
named Matthew, who suggested the
plan to Napoleon I. Needless to say,
England was not in accord with the
suggestion, n the attitude Of that
country remained fixed when the. sub
Ject was revived at the time Of the
third Napoleon. In the early '70s the
French made another attempt to
start something and M. Thome de
\ w ~ w 9Th H. 81 - H.
of his life, drew elaborate plans. At
about the same time Sir John Hawk
shaw, famous builder of the Severn
Tunnel, the largest su%baqueous tunnel
in the world. also gave his indorse-
ment to the scheme and suggested a
straight boring from Calais to Dover.
Though the practicability of the tun-
mel was declared by both of these
engineers, England took no definite
steps, merely favoring the idea as an
idea. =.
From 1883 to the present time tun-
mel bills AVE been annually rejected
by n house Of commons on the alb
surd score that such a connection
with the continent would destroy the
splendid isolation of England from
the standpoint of national defense.
Arguments and eXpostulations of
engineers have been fruitless; sue
ceeding ministries, adhering unsWerv-
ingly to the conservative precedent
established by Lord Landsdowne, have
denounced the bill as resolutely as
they would have denounced a pro-
position to discontinue the building of
a. navy. The last action of this sort
was taken in 1907, when Sir Henry
Campbell Bannerman followed the ex-
ample set by preceding premiers. In
this he was warmly seconded by Field
Marshal Lord Wolseley, who had pre-
viously spoken Of the scheme as an
insane project which would place our
island at the mercy of the first in
vader who cared to avail himself of
the. submarine way of landing on the
shores of this hitherto invulnerable
! Albion" A. 4 -
Called 1t An Easy Job.
In 1911 M. Chagnaud,, the brilliant
French engineer who built the Paris
Metropolitan line under the Seine, aft
er a careful investigation of the posi-
bilities, enthusiastically urged, the
construction of the tunnel. He consid-
cred that the work, would be compare
lively easy as the bed of the channel
was entirely of a gray chalk deposit,
the principal danger being in the sud
den encountering Of assures IN the
strata which would cause a deadly in
vasion Of the sea. He characterized
the military opposition to the plan as
Of no value whatever as the possibility
Of flooding or dynamiting the tube in
case. of attack would be childishlY
simple. .- Sc, ..+,, T. ~-. -. 80. -
At the present time many engineers,
both French and American. are great
~ attracted by the professional prob
lens offered, and all agree that the
channel tunnel is a strong possibility
of the near future. George Duncan
Snyder, an American connected with
the firm of Jacobs & Davies, builders
of the wonderful Hudson river tun-
nels and McAdoo tubes under New
York, says it would be as easy as
building a battleship. IF. e..
Let Andrew Carnegie build The
channel tunnel If he desires to- pro.
mote universal peace he suggests