The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Under the sea

From a letter to the Editor, ‘The Channel Tunnel’, The Spectator, 27 February 1915:

[To the Editor of The “Spectator’]

SIR,—Many of us must be wondering what the promoters of the Channel Tunnel enterprise think about the matter now. To those of us who are of the “Island” school it has always appeared that there were three main objections to the scheme —first, the risk of panic and of the evils that arise from panic; secondly, the real danger involved; and thirdly, the fact that in creating a tunnel we should be giving a hostage to fortune. A mere layman cannot set forth adequately the risks that the existence of a tunnel might have involved in the present war; but his guesses may not be altogether devoid of suggestiveness. Had Belgium fallen in with the German proposals, Calais might before now have been in the hands of the Germans.

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