Page:Shall we have a Channel tunnel?.djvu/27

21 "The Committee considered that it was undesirable that the end of the Tunnel should be within effective range from the sea (one member of the Committee, Sir John Stokes, dissented from this recommendation, see p. 259), and decided that the following conditions were essential:—The Tunnel should not emerge within any fortification, but its exit as well as the airshafts, pumping apparatus, &c., should be commanded by the advanced works of a fortress.

"There should be means of closing the Tunnel by a portcullis, and also of discharging irrespirable gases into it.

"There should be power to produce a temporary demolition of the land portion of the Tunnel by means of mining.

"There should be arrangements for a temporary flooding of the Tunnel by sluices.

"There should be arrangements for a permanent flooding of the Tunnel by mines which should open a direct communication between the bottom of the sea and the Tunnel.

"The mechanical arrangements required for temporary obstruction should be capable of being controlled from different points within the fortifications, and the means of destroying the Tunnel should be controlled, not only from the central work of the fortress, but also from one or more distant places, which should have distinct communications with the mines, independent of those of the fortress.

"The Committee also considered the two schemes for which Bills are before Parliament, and decided that neither of these schemes, as defined by the Bills, could be recommended; inasmuch as they failed to fulfil some of the conditions mentioned above as being essential.

The Committee concluded by recording their opinion that "it would be presumptuous to place absolute reliance upon even the most comprehensive and complete arrangements which can be devised, with a view of rendering the Tunnel absolutely useless to an enemy in every imaginable contingency".

The full Report of this Committee is given from pages 251 to 259, which includes the remarks by Sir John Stokes, and records his dissent from one very important principle, which the majority of the Committee had adopted, "namely, that the