The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1914-09-23
WOULD MEAN SAVING OF MANY
HOURS IN TRANSPORTING OF
TROOPS. BELIEF NOW THAT IT
WILL BE BUILT.

British forces could have been put
on trains at their camps in any part
of England and never taken off until
they were near the battlefield. 1t is
difficult to estimate how great an ad.
vantage this would have given the
allies.
Or, if England were invaded,
France could quickly send across a
large part of her army One good
result OF the present conflict will un,
doubtedly be the-hurrying through of
the trans-channel tunnel project.
A foreign foe, it has been said,
might seize Dover harbor and the tun-
ncls mouth in a fog or at night To
meet this objection, the mouth of the
tunnel, according TO the present plans,
is to be placed under the control OF
Dover castle and the western heights
forts and also in the line of shell fire
from war vessels in the harbor
The commandants of both these
forts will be provided with facilities
for flooding the tunnel and filling a
mile of its length up to the roof with
water. In order that this may be
done, the tunnel will dip for about a
mile at each end, and then rise again.
To prevent forts from opening the
sluices, the enemy would have to seize
both forts at exactly the same instant
which is absurd and impossible.
81 hope you will come to the con.
clusion that no danger that we can
not with reasonable certainty guard
against can arise from the cOnstruc-
tion of the channel tunnel" said Lord
Sydenham to the house of commons
channel tunnel committee at a recent
meeting.
Lord Sydenham, who has served on
the committee of imperial defense un-
der three prime ministers, showed how
ridiculous are all the objections to the
tunnel from a military point of view
After a short historical summary of
the way, the SCENE has been consid-
cred by parliament, Lord Sydenham
quoted a sentence from the report Of
the committee of 1882, to the effect
that it would be absolutely impossible
to guarantee the safety of the tunnel
in every imaginable contingency.
I'VE shall all agree with that" said
he amid laughter, and he went on to
point out that such an attitude would
enectually prevent the carrying out of
most things. But as practical people,
we have got to so on probabilities,
seeing that absolute certainty is be-
yond the compass of human ingenui-
ty.
Dealing with the dangers foretold
by Lord Wolseley and others, Lord
Sydenham said the danger OF the
mouth OF the tunnel being seized in
time of peace was no greater than the
danger of the destruction OF the fleet,
or the bombardment of London by
airships
At the same time it would take a
pretty strong force to capture two
strong forts and a generating station
simultaneously. Three distinct opera
tions would be needed, and they must
succeed simultaneously. He defed any
soldier to devise a plan which was
feasible. II would mean the landing
of a heavy siege train, and it postulat.
ed the destruction of the navy and the
complete defeat of the army first.
After describing the means provided
for the instantaneous flooding of the
tunnel from the two forts or the gen.
Grating station, he said it could never
be used as a means of invasion eX-
.cept by France, or by an enemy that
had obtained control of the northern
railways of that country.
He thought the question had been
very badly handled in the past; the
first official step should have been to
make an exhaustive inquiry into the
whole matter. He believed that the
construction of the tunnel would be to
the mutual advantage. both political
and economic, of England and France
In the short discussion that follow
ed, Major General Sir Ivor Herbert.
NJ p. said the arguments now used
against the scheme were those used 80
years ago-"the doing away with the
silver streak" There was far more
danger in the advance of aviation than
in the construction of a single line of
railway under the channel He could
think of no better method of celebrat-
ing the hundred years peace with
France