The Channel "Tube"
The Channel "Tube" is an article published in the Daily Express on 15 august 1913.
The Channel "Tube"
SIR A. CONAN DOYLE CALLS THE DANGER IDEA "FANTASTIC."
A strong appeal for the proposed Channel tunnel, written by Sir A. Conan Doyle, appears in the form of a letter to the "Times."
"It is admitted on all hands,"
he says, "that the greatest danger which can threaten this country in war is the possible failure and certain diminution of our food supplies. Weighty authorities have stated that a single defeat at sea might entail our absolute surrender.
"Recent years have seen the development of a new great European navy and of a political situation which might conceivably place it in opposition to our own." An adequate tunnel would certainly lessen the difficulty of our food supplies, since it would place us in communication with the whole Mediterranean basin through Marseilles.
"Even granting that we held the sons successfully, it would to some extent relieve our Navy of that duty of protecting our food cargoes which must take something from its strength.
"As to the dangers involved the idea of the invasion of a great country through a hole in the ground twenty-six miles long and as many feet broad seems to me to be a most fantastic one.
"An enemy to use the tunnel has to hold both ends of it. In the unlikely event of a quarrel with France it is surely not difficult to seal up our end."
