DISCOVERY 



A MONTHLY POPULAR 

 JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE 



Vol. II, No. 24. DECEMBER 1921. 



PRICE Is. NET. 



DISCOVERY. A Monthly Popular Journal of Know- 

 ledge. 



Edited by Edward Liveing, B.A., Rothersthorpe, 

 Northampton, to whom all Editorial Communications 

 should be addressed. (Dr. A. S. Russell continues to 

 act as Scientific Adviser.) 



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 London, W.i, to whom all Business Communications 

 should be addressed. 



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Editorial Notes 



During the last few weeks public interest has in 

 various ways been directed to questions concerning 

 the development of national and international com- 

 munications. A prophetic speech, mostly relating to 

 air communications, was delivered by our Director 

 of Civil Aviation, Major-General Sir Frederick Sykes, 

 at the annual dinner of the Institute of Traasport on 

 October 10 ; Lord Curzon gave expression during 

 the last Parliamentary session to what we believe is a 

 steadily growing popular wish — the desire for the 

 Channel railway tunnel ; the Richborough Ferry, first 

 t'mployed for war purposes, has recently been found 

 of great use in the transport of fruit trains, coming from 

 the south of France, across the Channel ; the French Press, 

 prompted by the present state of affairs in Morocco, 

 has been discussing the possibilities of a railway tunnel 

 under the Straits of Gibraltar, for which a not too 

 ambitious scheme providing for a single tube 18 feet in 

 diameter has been drawn up by the well-known Spanish 

 engineer, Sefior Rubio y Bellue ; as to ventures less far 

 afield and of more local importance, the London Traffic 

 Combine has submitted a scheme to the Government 

 for extending the London underground railways in con- 

 nection with the Government's proposal of guaranteeing 

 the interest on capital issues to be used for under- 

 takings likely to provide work for the unemployed. 



Objections raised against launching out on new projects 

 of this kind at a time when the whole of Europe and even 

 America is struggling in the grip of a financial chim<Bra 

 seem plausible enough at first sight. But very strong 

 arguments exist against such objections. It is, for 

 instance, questionable whether we can afford in the long 

 run to stay the material progress of our civilisation. 

 As Sir Frederick Sykes said in the speech which we have 

 mentioned, " The evolution of our civilisation is largely 

 a history' of endeavour to extend the limits imposed 

 upon human living and mobility in each of the great 

 phases through which it has passed." He also re- 

 marked that " foresight of a few years is not too much to 

 ask when it is a question of the advance or decline of our 

 Empire, and yet nobody seems to have time to think 

 more than a week ahead." We hold no particular 

 brief for international competition ; we would rather 

 see international co-operation in such matters, though 

 naturally we desire our Empire to take a prominent 

 part in such co-operation. The last few years have 

 taught us two lessons — that nations are to an enor- 

 mous extent dependent for existence one upon another, 

 and that for this reason the development of communica- 

 tions between them is essential. If the machinery of 

 our civilisation is creaking at present, the best way to 

 rectify the evil is to increase the plant and so alleviate 

 the stress on the existing mechanism. 



Another and more immediate argument for hastening 

 into actuality recent discoveries and developments in 

 air and land transport is that this would provide work 

 for thousands of our unemployed. The Government 

 has proposed backing commercial enterprises with 

 credit to the extent of £26,000,000. It was made clear 

 in an article in last month's Discovery ^ that such 

 action can only be in the nature of a palliative. Pal- 

 liatives have, however, become a necessity, as Professor 

 Knoop indicated, and palliatives that can be applied to 

 such sound uses will prove most valuable. It is obvious 

 that the development of aerial highways throughout 

 our own Empire w^ill in the long run be attended by the 

 most far-reaching results of any means of communica- 



' The Problem of Unemployment, by Professor Douglas Knoop, 

 p. 286. 



305 



