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22 tunnel should not emerge within rage of effective fire from the sea". He says (p. 259), "I am strongly of opinion that the exit of the tunnel should be under the fire of our fleet," and he recommends that "no defences should be erected, as suggested by the Committee, to protect the land approaches to the Tunnel from fire from the sea, for the country would have more to hope for from its own navy, than to fear from hostile ships ".

This Committee also took evidence from Sir Edward W. Watkin, Bart, M.P., Chairman, South Eastern Railway, on 28th March, 1882 (p. 260)—from Francis Brady, Esq., C.E, (p. 263)— from Lord Richard Grovenor, M.P, Chairman of the Channel Tunnel Company, on 30th March, 1882 (p. 265)—and from Sir John Hawkshaw, one of the Engineers of the Channel Tunnel Railway Company (p. 266).—Some of this evidence I may have to refer to afterwards.

"On the Report of this Committee being referred by the Secretary of State for opinion:—(see p. XVI. of Précis)

"The Surveyor-General of Ordnance" (Sir John Adye, in Memorandum, dated May, 1882, p. 269) "considered that the recommendations of the Committee would amply suffice for the object in view. Nothing, in his opinion, was more obvious than the facility with which the Tunnel could be denied to an enemy by means which no vigilance on his- part could prevent or remove."

"The Adjutant-General" (now Lord Wolseley, in a second Memorandum, dated Horse Guards, War Office, 16th June, 1882, pp. 271-298) "was strengthened in his conviction that the hour when the tunnel was sanctioned, would be for England a most disastrous one. He maintained that there could be no stronger proof of the existence of danger than the magnitude and elaborate nature of the precautions recommended by the Committee."

I come now to the last dates with which I shall have to trouble you. On the 26th May, 1882, the Secretary of State for War (Mr. Childers) informed the Duke of Cambridge that, "The inquiry into the Channel Tunnel schemes has now reached the stage at which Her Majesty's Government will be glad to receive your Royal Highness' views on the strategical and military aspects of the question" (p. 270).