1961-06-03 — Page 3

THE

Dream of a land link from

England to France may come true

Governments of Britain and France will soon be announcing their decision whether or not there to be a Channel tunnel.

The men behind the tunnel plan believe they will get the go-ahead and that in a few years time it will be possible to travel by train under the English Channel from the Kent Coast to France-a 36-mile journey in about 40 minutes.

And a dream that started year England and France were more than 150 years ago will at war again-it was two years at last come true.

before Trafalgar and the plan

It was in 1802 that a French engheer named Albert Mathieu began it all when he put the idea to Napoleon Bonaparte.

His idea was to build two tunnels one from England, one from France-that would meet on an artificial island built on the Varne Bank in mid-Channel.

At war

The island would be neces- sary, he thought, so that the horses that would pull the trains could come up into the air for

a rest

'Boney' was quite impressed by the scheme but by the next

was shelved..

2

Nor were.

be no easy task to make cuttings 200ft. under water. the engineers of the time con- fident that they would be able to make waterproof joints under the sea.

But the idea had captured public imagination on both sides

But the tube idea was to be of the Channel and it has never been allowed to drop for long raised again and again. A man score named Young proposed to float since. Over the years

have produced the tube midway between sea- of engineers plans while crackpots have also bed and the surface of the water. It would be held in posi- joined in the "Chunnel" game."

tion by hawsers attached to the In 1803

an Englishman

seabed. named Mottray asked, why go to the trouble of tunnelling? Why not make a great big iron tube and then lay it on the

with ventilating chimneys stick- The generals were backed by

ing up above the waves.

men such as Poet Laureata

To disguise the chimneys Alfred Tennyson and Robert islands would be towed out into Browning. the Channel by paddle steamers. And on the islands would be that the tunnel could be flooded The tuanel men pointed out built Gothic pavilions with

exit from the tunnel would be if war broke out and that the covered. by the guns of Dover,

turrets and minarets and lots of lights. There would be a string of 13 of these islands.

Sailors put the damper 03 this one. They said it might look very pretty but what if they ran into one in fog or storm?

But now British engineers like William Low and Sir John Hawksham, the man who built the Seven Tunnel, joined in.

More practicable tunnel plans were drawn up. Companies were formed in England and France. to build the Chunnel'. Prime Minister Gladstone approved. The French approved. And in 1875 the French began the work of taking nearly 8,000 sound ings and over 3,000 samples of

In 1836 a French engineer named Thome de Gamond pro- duced the first of his many plans for linking the two coun- He was soon told. The sea tries. It was for a bridge, the the sea bed, bed is not level and it would biggest bridge in the world.

seabed?

Reel Corner

Meet Juliet.

the cricketer

When it was pointed out, that apart from anything else, this bridge would be impossibly expensive he proposed to build jetties jutting five miles out to sea from each coast. And have a vast ferry going to and fro between them. This was also turned down on the grounds of

In 1878, as electric lighting began, the French started the tunnel. They began at San gatte, just south of Calais.

But the work was never to attempts start again, In 1833 Chunnel scheme but a were made to revive the

Commission turned it down.

Royal

some

Now, once again, the generals are against it Field Marshal Viscount Montgomiej has called it a "wildcat scheme” and said that our safety depends on mastery of the sea around u

Sir Edward Spears has said: "The tummel will present deadly danger in time of wan

The last war would cen tainly have been lost has there been a Channel tunnel"

But, say the Channel mer during July and August last year 2 team of interviewers asked 56,000 people crossing the Channel by boats if they wanted a tunnel Every one said

yes.

They drove a shaft that went

The governments now have down 250ft., more than 150ft before them a complete engin- below the sea. From the bottom eering report on the scheme of the shaft a 6ft wide tunnel Borings were made deep into headed towards England. Over the seabed last year to work expense.

here we were slower getting out the Chunnel's route. But undeterred de Gamond started. The trouble was raising went skin diving, weighted the money. But by 1882 The Chunnel, if built, WE down with stones, 100ft, beneath machines like giant dentists' make it possible to travel by the surface in order to study drills had driven one tunnel train from London to Paris in the rock formation. Once he was over a mile towards France four hours, Landon to Brus- attacked by fish. Then he came from a shaft sunk at Shake sels in about the same time,

-

up with another scheme for speare Cliff, and another went About six million passenger

a tubular steel viaduct 160ft. half a mile from Abbotts Chiff, would use it every year, it above the waves. Imagine being both west of Dover.

in a train crossing the Channel

ENGLAND'S answer to Australia's fast bowlers miles an hour wind! That idea to be held to decide whether

could be lovely 19-year-old Juliet Mills. Or could it? It all depends really on how fast cricket enthusiast Michael Craig can coach her to Test standard.

Somehow we don't think 'England's answer to the Aussies' will be ready on time ....she only started playing cricket a few weeks ago when she began work on her new film, "NO. MY DARLING DAUGHTER".

Cricket to boys

In the film Juliet starts off as a leggy gymslip-clad school girl who scon abandons her love of cricket when she finds that boys are a bigger attraction.

Anyway, England, producer Betty Box and director Ralph Thomas, give you full permis- sion to use Juliet in your eleven.

Whether Juliet plays or not, Michael Craig intends to watch all the matches work per- mnitting.

Same hotel

Michael made friends with the Australian team a few years ago when filming in South Africa. He and the Aussies were in the

me hotel.

Now he intends to invite them to Pinewood studios when they get a day off-and perhaps then they can see Juliet wielding the willow for her role in "NO, MY DARLING DAUGHTER”.

at this height од a Alimsy Then the Government ordered viaduct in the teeth of a 60 work to stop. An inquiry was

the tunnel was really too failed to get support.

a good Queen Victoria, La 1852, the year the Duke thing or not. of Wellington died, a French who had earlier approved the doctor named Prosper Payerne scheme had now decided it was produced a scheme. He had not a good idea. designed a diving bell and proved to scoffers that it did, in fact, work by staying under- water off Cherbourg in it for 12 hours.

13 islands

expected

Strain

Cars would be carried through on trains, not driven.

Mr Leo D'Erlanger, banker chairman of the Channel Tun- nel Company, says: "Apa from the difficulties of ventile- tion and space for breakdowns, of many people would find civing some 30 miles underground an against

intolerable strain."

But

more than this, the mander-in-Chief, the Duke generals led by the Com- Cambridge had risen

it.

"Why," they said, "an army could swarm through the tunnel His idea was to make a 50ft. to attack us in no time at all" wide causeway &CTO55 the Channel of prefabricated blocks and then have the tunnel built

on this foundation by workmen using his diving bells. Workmen were not so keen on the plan.

A Frenchman named Horeau also had an attractive plan. It was 1860, the year the first British ironclad was launched and Garibaldi was liberating Italy. He proposed a tunnel

-MEMBERSHIP-

Fill this in and send it to the China Mail, 1-3 Wyndham Street, Hongkong.

Name

Age

Occupation

Address

Apart from the generals the Chunnel would bring unhappi- ness to one other group of mEGA the airline and fey operates.

ZOO'S WHO by GEORGE

GIANT ARMADILLOS, SOMES

FEET LONG, INCLUDING THEIR TAILS, ARE FOUND IN THE NORTHERN PART OF SOUTH AMERICA.SMALLER SPECIES ARE FOUND IN BRAZIL, BOLIVIA AND ARGENTINA.THE MOST COMMON TYPE IS FOUND AS FAR NORTH AS TEXAS.IS ABOUT 16 INCHES LONG.. ITS CALLED THE NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO

HEY!

OH GOODK

„ALTHOUGH IT HAS ` NO TEETH, IT PREYS ON INSECTS, LICKING THEM UP WITH ITS STICKY ADHESIVE TONGUE..

THESE CREATURES ARE LOW IN

INTELLIGENCE, AND HAVE POOR, EYESIGHT AND HEARING; THEY SURVIVE BECAUSE OF THE PRO- TECTION AFFORDED BY THEIR ARMOR AND BY THEIR DIGGING ABILTY...