The Channel Tunnel
rIVE. psychological argument against the Channel 1 Tunnel Seems to us to be by far the strongest, yet it is by no means decisiVe. On the whole we think that if there is no better case than we haVe yet heard against the - tunnel the scheMe ought to go through.
• • Let us take the psyehological argthrient first. It is well known that the military and naval demands in any country are related strictly to the state of public confidence. - A nation. which fears that it is -unsafe will gladly and hastily pour out money for its defence. The traditional defence of this country has been the sea, and no one can estimate exactly what change of feeling ' there would be if our " Moat defensive " were filled in. For, our part, however, we estimate the consequent reduction in the British sense of security - as negligible. It is to another possible psychological effect that we attach more importance. If we were joined to France by a tunnel Great Britain might wake up to find that she had become, in a measure which she had never con- templated, a Continental Power. Politically and morally, as well as materially, we might find ourselves joined more closely to France. It is significant, at all events, that there has been rejoicing in France_ at the news that the tunnel scheme - is again 'prominent. No - doubt _French politicians in search of security are pleased with the thought that Great - Britain and France would be finally compelled to make a coMmon cause of their defence. The thought gives. us pause, .for we cannot honeStly say that a still closer political conjunction with France Would' do anything 'but decrease our hopes for the triumph of the spirit of -peace. Such a case as this against the tunnel is seldom mentioned, but it has real force althbugh it is intangible.
We haVe come to the conclusion, hoWever, that the risk of too close a political co-operation with France is sufficiently under the control of Englishmen themselves ,for thein_ to accept it The commercial advantages of a tunnel would be so enormous that they ought to out- weigh an admitted danger which could be rendered harniles-s, So long as it was continually remembered that it was there. As for the other objections—the military and naval objections—it would be ludicrous if we were frightened by them. It is said that a tunnel would be a road for an invading army. Personally, we should not care to be marching with' a foreign army in the tunnel so long as the pumping stations by which the tunnel could be flooded were in British hands. Lord Wolseley admitted that the tunnel would be a military danger only in the event of an attack delivered " without warning in times of profound peace." It is true that a high per- centage of wars in the past have been begun without a declaration, but there has always been some preceding effervescence, if not a critical dispute. Does anyone seriously believe that under modern conditions 'a European - war could come like a bolt' from the blue ?
Besides, our real military peril is not from an invading army, but from attacks by air. In' one important way the tunnel would bring us a new and much higher degree of safety because it would end the risk of our being starved by submarines. When the tunnel has been built the military and naval objections of to-day will be laughed at, as we now laugh at the former objections to iron ships, and breech-loading guns, and the railways from Portsmouth and Dover, and cables, and a great many other things. It has been said that a new and bold proposal goes through three stages. First people say that it is impossible. Next they say that it is contrary to Scripture. Lastly (when the plan has succeeded) they say " I told you so."
A Channel Tunnel could not fail greatly to increase British trade. It would bring hundreds of thousands of visitors here every year who now dread crossing the Channel. It Would ' save all the costly and dilatory loading and unloading of merchandise at the Channel ports. It would help the steel and the ferro- Concrete trades. It would set to work many thousands of our unemployed. Germany has taught us one lesson by which we ought to profit. Slack times are the opportunity for setting one's house in order and getting everything ready for the period of better trade that is coming.
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