Review of Reviews, 1/8/06. 



Leading Articles. 



185 



(788 cases). But what does not seem quite satis- 

 factory' is that while in 1896 818 cases were settled 

 out of 1456, in 1904 only 615 were settled out of 

 1418 — a much less percentage. 



THE LINE TO BE FOLLO^VED. 



Mr. Mitchell argues from these results that here is 

 a clear indication of the lines along which Arbitra- 

 tion and Conciliation work best. But he does not 

 sufficiently insist on the different way the New Zea- 

 land Act has worked from what was expected, nor 

 on the greattr number of disputes brought into 

 Court under it. But then, conditions being so dif- 

 ferent here, the Colonies' meat might be England's 

 poison. Mr. Mitchell's advice is to do nothing to 

 weaken Conciliation Boards, considering how many 

 trades have evidently found them useful, but rather 

 to do everything possible to develop and extend their 

 principle, notably by giving the Board of Trade in- 

 creased authority, enabling it actively to foster the 

 establishment of such Boards. 



THE CHANNEL TUNNEL 



The opening article in the IVorld's Work is de- 

 voted to a discussion of this project. Sir William 

 Holland, M.P., introducing the subject. His sole 

 objection to the tunnel is of a strategic nature. This, 

 however, he considers very slight, and the benefits of 

 a Channel Tunnel verv substantial. 



FROM THE ENGLISH SIDE. 



Mr. George Turnbull discusses the tunnel from the 

 English side. The project stands an infinitely better 

 chance, he thinks, than in 1883, when, however, the 

 Select Committee of the Lords and Commons, with 

 Lord Lansdowne at their head, only decided against 

 it by a majority of two. The political situation is 

 quite different, and in every way much more favour- 

 able, than in 1882. Even if there w-ere to be an inva- 

 sion, it has not been shown that the tunnel would 

 make matters worse for us. Both the French and 

 English Governments are sympathetic to the pro- 

 posal, especially the easily sea-sick French. En- 

 gineers are convinced that the grey chalk in the 

 Channel can be bored successfully. The plans 

 drawn up in the seventies will be little changed ; 

 and Mr. Francis Brady, the S.E. and C. Company's 

 engineer of 1883, is the engineer to-dav : — 



On Mr. Brady's representations, experimental works were 

 started to the west instead of to tlie east of Dover, at a 

 point where the srey cVialk comes to the surface, and it is 

 possible to pierce a tunnel witliout risk from sea-water. 

 The fact that tlie experimental works, carried for more 

 than a mile under sea. proved that the erey chalk was 

 imi>ermeahle where solid, established the future route, 

 although the alignment in following the course of the 

 stratum across Channel has to diverge slightly from a 

 straight course. 



This tunnel which is proposed afresh to-day. then, will 

 be thirty miles in length, measuring from the international 

 station at Dover to the corresponding terminus on the op- 

 posite shore at Sangatte, near Calais. 



As in the case of the Simplon. there would be two inde- 

 pendent tunnels. These would be twenty feet apart, with 

 cross galleries at intervals of a quarter of a mile, giving 

 communication between them. The tunnels would run at 

 a parallel level through the grey formation, which, itself 

 impermeable where solid to wat«r. constitutes a continuous 

 bed below the porous chalk and above the ganlt. Each 



tunnel would be eighteen feet in diameter, and the extreme 

 depth below the bottom of the sea would be 150 feet. 



Of course the difference the tunnel would make to 

 Dover is incalculable. She would then be a for- 

 midable rival of Antwerp and Hamburg, and the ad- 

 vantage to railways would not be much less: — 



The international convenienc* of having British and 

 foreign railway stock of the standard gauge running over 

 the submarine lines would give a great impetus to traffic. 

 From London tiie South Eastern c.-acli s could run to 

 I'arig, Madrid, Lisbon, Brussels, Vienna. R-i-oe, Copenhagen, 

 Constantinople, Athens, St. Petersburg— .md waggons ^rom 

 these and the other capitals of Europe could crme to 

 London and radiate in all directions throughout the lines 

 of this country. 



FEOM THE FRENCH SIDE. 



Mr. Charles Daubarn, dealing with this aspect of 

 the question, sa\s that since the formation, thirty 

 years ago, of the French and the English Tunnel 

 Companies much progress has been made in tunnel- 

 ling. Much was learnt in making the Simplon Tun- 

 nel, and though the length of the Channel Tunnel 

 would be much greater (he puts it at perhaps thirty- 

 five miles), the difficulties are much less. Never has 

 the time been more favourable to the consideration 

 of the scheme so far as France is concerned. In 

 fact, the French bogey is practically laid ; but there 

 remains the German bogev — the possibility that Ger- 

 many might war against the Republic, and compel 

 her to give up the strip of land containing the French 

 end of the tunnel. And then French people con- 

 sider there is another aspect of the case, often for- 

 gotten by England — the blow that might be inflicted 

 on English shipping interests. They think shipping 

 would be diverted from London and Liverpool to 

 the advantage of Marseilles and Genoa. The Lyons 

 silk manufacturers, who now run a sj>ecial train to 

 convey their silk merchandise to London, would no 

 longer be disturbed by fear of the boat being de- 

 layed. And it means a great deal to them to have 

 their silk on the market exactly to time. Normandy 

 and Brittany produce would probably all go by the 

 tvmnel. But, savs Mr. Dawbarn, this onlv means 

 more into the pockets of the railway companies and 

 le.ss into those of the shipowners'. Once build your 

 Channel Tunnel and the Londoner will reckon Paris 

 nearer than Dublin, and the Parisian and provincial 

 Frenchman will have the one great obstacle removed 

 to his visiting England — his dread of the sea. The 

 writer forgets the rooted conviction of the exorbitant 

 charges of English hotels, \vhich keeps away so many 

 French tourists. 



In the Nunra Antnlnqia Paola Lombraso writos a 

 chatty account of the home-life and mild eccentricities 

 of her distinguished scientific father, whose seventieth 

 birthday has just been celebrated with much honour 

 throughout Italy. From his daughtor'.s vivid pen we 

 leani that the professor is a man of great enthusiasms, 

 unimpaired activity and a pure-soule<l devotion to 

 science, but irascible in small matters and fiunintly 

 unpractical. Tlio poetry of Cliristina Rossetti is sym- 

 pathetically treat-ed by a lady bearing the same name, 

 and an exceedingly well-informed article, by G. della 

 Vocchia on our new House of Commons and the events 

 that led up to the General Election should do good 

 service to foreign readers. 



