HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1916-8-24, Page 6• . .
A Story of The War
it Was Colonel ShaW himself who
tint told Mre, Saunderson the story of
how her bay had died in .Flanders.
That was lust six menthe • after the
death of her huebated, Of course she
had reeelved the official notification,
but not until the Colonel was invalided
home, and she heard the story from
his own lips, did eho learn that her
boy had fallen while saving that gal-
lant officerei life.
Naturally the story told by the Col-
. onel went a long way toward softening
the mother's grief.. "Had he lived,
the Colonel concluded,1 would have
made him independent." But the Col -
oriel did not confine himself now , to
verbal praise and promises he went
further and showed his gratitude by
presenting Mrs. Sanderson with the
title deed of a house, a portion of
which was available for ient. Thus
he provided bread and butter for the
family. Before the war she had been
almost a stranger in the city. Her
Scottish nature kept her aloof, conse-
quently her friends had been few.
But now it was different. The story
of Private Sanderson's heroic death
Was published in the newspapers and
she became quite popular, especially in
military circles.
The khaki was the open sesame to
the Sanderson home, Every returned
4ioldler was welcome there, Often In
the cozy parlor the family and their
friends would gather and listen to the
tales told by the remnants of the
"Fighting 14th." But of all the tales
that were told there was one of in-
terest to the grief-stricken mother.
Nothing pleased her better than to
hear the story of how Bob bad saved
the Colonel, except it was repeating
of it when she could find a listener.
There was one constant visitor to
that bereft home who did not wear the
khaki, but often wished she could.
Irene Johnson never missed a Sunday.,
As the clocks were striking three she
was in the parlor. There mother and
girl would sit and talk of Bob—one to
mourn a son, the other to mourn a
lover, They met and mingled -their
tears to soften their sorrow. Irene
would read the newspaper clippings
telling of Bob's death, while the elder
woman would sit and listen. This was
repeated every Sunday, and now they
bad every one of them off by heart.
They had read them so often they
could repeat -them in the dark.
One SundaY, just before dusk, the
two women. were togeth.er as usual.
The regular routine had been gone
through. Scarcely a word had been
spoken for nearly an hour. None but
the afflicted knew the solace or con-
solation these women found in this
silent converse—the converse of the
heart.
Their reverie was disturbed by the
entrance of a tall young stranger
olad in well-worn khaki, whose empty
sleeve and scarred face told a tale of
bloody battlefields. His bronzed face, •
partly covered with a thick black
beard, plainly showed traces of suf-
fering, giving him an appearance of
age far beyond his years,
"I came expecting to meet Sergeant
Robertson," he explained as Mrs.',
Sanderson placed a chair for him.
"He'll likely be here later,' she re-'
plied. "It's hardly his time yet."
Irene moved her chair to obtain a'
better view of the stranger as he re-
plied to a query from the elder woman.
"I belong to the Vieth, I went with'
the first contingent."
"Oh, then, you knew my son who;
was Milled at St. Julien ?"
"Rob Sanderson ; of course I knew,
him, but I did not know that he was
dead."
"Yes, he's dead. He was killed.
while saving Colonel Shaw's life,
Didn't you hear about it ?"
"Well, I remember something of it;
but just about that time I was wounded •
and lett for dead on the field. When;
regained consciousness it was dark.,
I crawled along the ground, but unfor
tunately I went in the wrong directioni
and was taken prisoner. I spent the'
next six months in German hospitals.
Then at the end of that time I was;
strong enough to get around, and being
no more •use as a soldier" (here he
pointed to the empty sleeve), "they al-
lowed me to go. And now to cut a
long story short it has taken me Justi
five months to reach Montreal." I
"Poor fellow. You've certainly had
your share of it," said Irene.
"Are your folks in the city ?" Mrs.
Sanderson asked.
"Yea, my mother is a widow. I don't
want her to know I'm back I was a
bad boy before I went to the war—all
the time in trouble. Then you see
they think that I am dead. Anyhow
ehe'd never know me. This is a new
face I've got, 'my old one was bloWn off
by a bursting ellen, and my voice
changed by the gas, So even my own
mother wouldn't know me."
No, no," he said as Mrs, Saundorson
attempted to expostulate, "I would only
be a burden upon my poor old mother.
It is better as it is, rit go to -morrow
and see the Colonel; maybe he'll
find something for me to do."
"If you were only Bob," said Mrs.
Saunderson, "you'd be all right. The
Colonel said if he'd been Spared he
would have made Bob a partner in the
businese, What do you think of that?"
Then he Went on to tell all that had
been done for her,
Asking Irene to light the gas she
went to the desk and brought out her
favorite clipping
"This is 'the one the Coloael likes
best ; I're sate you'll like it," she said,
addreesing the soldlot, "Now listen
while Irene remelt it"'
"Maybe he'd prefer reading 11. 111a -
self, Ira suggested,
"No, no, rd much rather you'd
read it," he hastily replied, "My eyes
are bad, that's why, when the gas Is
fit I Moved over to Gila eorner.
As Irene commenced to read he be-
dtime visibly affected, The fingers of
his only hand worked convulsively,
then ae she proceeded he became
violently agitated. Continuing, she
read—
When Colonel Shaw fell Private
Sanderson leaped over his pros-
trate body and felled an asallarit
about to bayonet the fallen
Thee two more Went i/awn before his
line fire. Rat now another was Wen
him, a wound In the arm caused him
to drop his rifle, Ducking to evade
a, bayonet thrust he seized the officer's
sword and plunged it into his adver-
sary."
Here the soldier jumped to his feet,
frantically shouting and waving his
arm, "yes, yes ; I remember now, I
" remember it all now, He got the Col.
onel over his shoulder and tried to get
back ; then a shell buret In front of
them and down they went together,
The Colonel was picked up but Bob
was left for dead,"
He seemed calmer now but con-
tinued standing. There Was dead
silence for a moment, then with a
smite lie said, "but Rob ain't dead ; he
was taken prisoner,'
"Not dead 1" said Mrs, Sanderson,
rushing forward and grasping the
hand of the soldier, and speaking with
an eagerness bordering on hysteria,
"0, man, tell me, tell me how it is
possible? Don't deceive, man, don't
deceive me, as you expect to meet
Your Maker, don't deceive a poor
heartbroken mother. But tell me,
shal I see my boy again ?
"No, no," said Irene, rising from her
seat "he does not deceive us ; that's
Rob himself; I know him, I know
him."
"Mother, mother I" ,the soldier
cried, "don't you know me ? Don't
you know me ? Even if my face and
, voice are changed, my heart is still
' the same for you."—James F. Napier,
' NIontreal, in Scottish American.
NEW HEALING METHOD.
Salt Water Treatment for Wounded
Soldiers.
Surgical dressings, says the London
Lancet, are now things of the past.
Wounded soldiers' in military hospi-
tals are being treated by "saline ir-
I rigation," as the doctors call it, re-
cently invented by Sir Almroth
Wright.
This saline irrigation consists of a
solution of warm water with from
five to ten per cent. of salt in it, It
; can be kept at anormal standard of
' warmth in an ordinary Thermos
flask, suspended above the bed with
' rubber tube, conveying the fluid to a
• small glass tube.
Thus the new means of wound -heal -
1
:Mg. Here is what a doctor has to
say on its application:
i "We on no account apply a dressing.
!Surgical dressings—lint, bandage and
• wool—ere not being used except, of
course, during the transportation of a
wounded soldier from the field of bat-
'
, tle when, his wound must be covered
p
uin the old way with lint and anti-
septics.
"Take for instance, the case I have
here of a soldier who has a severe
shrapnel wound on the knee. You
see that while the bedclothes are ar-
ranged in the usual way over the
upper part of his body, a sort of
cradle' is formed over bhe lower part,
so as to keep the wound quite clear
from any possibility of contact with
the coverings. Here the salt water
is tickling down all the time drop by
drop from the glass tube on to the
wound, running day and night with-
out intermission and carrying off the
poison from the wound and helping to
clean and heal it."
The "Saline Irrigation" undertakes
to cleam up and heal most septic
wounds in three or four days. The
salt penetrates the seat of the poison-
ing and carries it off.
Sir Almroth Wright says of it:—
"The salt draws out from the infect-
ed tissues the lymph, which ha spent
all its power of resistance, to bhe poi-
sonous bacteria; while it draws into
the tissue from the blood stream, the
lymph which is the enemy of the mic-
robe."
On the other hand, Sir. Almroth
argues, that, the ordinary dressing in-
clines to become a barrier to the free
discharge of lymph from the wounds
though it is contrary to truth to say
that nurses allow dressings to stick
and cause bleeding on removal.
"As regards burns," the doctor. says,
"the French have discovered a most
efficacious method of spraying severe
Waning with paraffin."
CROWNS WORN IN WAR.
King of Italy Done His When He Re-
views His Troops.
Menarche no longer ride forth
crowned to battle, as did Richard 117
to his fatal fight on Bosworth Field,
Neverthelese, even to -day crowns
figure in the spectacular side of war
more often than is commonly sup -
paged. The Ring of Italy, for instance,
although he does not of cotree always
wear it, carries hie crown with him
wherever he goes, and frequently dons
It when he reviews his troops on cere-
monial parades.
This is in accordance with the cus-
tom and tradition of his house. The
crown is supposed to render its wearer
immune from harm, because Inclosed
within the gold is a tiny circlet of
iron, said to have been made from a
nail out of the true cross.
The aged Xing Peter of Serbia has
twice during the present War appeared
robed and ortwned before his armies
ou the battlefield,
Ring Ferdinand of Bonutnia.—who
must not be confounded with the ruler
of Bulgaria, who is also named Perdi-
narid—will probably go erowhed to
war, if he goes at all; precisely as did
hie two predecessors, Prince Alexan-
der Care, and his uncle, Xing Charles
I, But then the royal crown of Rou-
mania is unique, hi so far as ft tortes
a gent:fee badge °ill's nation's fieci-
dein from alien tyranny, It Is made
from the metal o1 Turkish Cenneti
ciipiVerd at Plevna by the Itoamardahs
lart, and in shape and appearance
It urine:lie the helmet of a soldier
rather time it diaciehL
4tt't4ttle•tee teetet <et= ter te
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Official Picture of Mametz After Capture by British.
CANADIAN AXEMEN
IN ENGLAND
THEIR SPEED AMAZES ENGLISH
OBSERVERS.
Historic English Forest Being Con-
verted Into Railway Sleepers
and Boards.
If you would know the lumberman
of Canada and how he works, says a
writer in the London Times, go to the
edge of Windsor Great Park, where
the cross -road from Virginia Water
Station strikes the main road between
Egham and Sunningdale. There, on
the Clock Case Plantation, you will
see over 150 men of the 224th Can-
adian Forestry Battalion converting
trees into railway sleepers and
boards at the rate of anything from
15,000 to 20,000 board feet a day.
The plantation, which forms part
of the lands owned by the Crown and
administered by the Commissioners
of Woods and Forests, included a
considerable area covered with
spruce, fir, Scots pine, and larch,
with an undergrowth of chestnut. Not
very long ago a party of experts
looked at the trees with the dispas-
sionate measuring eye of the under-
taker, and gave it as their opinion
that from this wood it was possible
to get 3,000,000 board feet of timber.
To -day whole tracts of it have been
swept clear by the axe, and the quaint
square tower of the old royal lodge,
which stands deep-set in the wood,
and which, so the story goes, by its
resemblance to the case of a grand-
father's clock gave the plantation its
curious name, is visible from the
roadway for the first time, perhaps,
in a hundred years. And still the
Canadian woodsmen go on, eating
their way through the wood with - a
thoroughness that knows no mercy.
Camp All Canadian.
The lumber camp is all Canadian—
men, machinery, and methods, The
men, who are drawn from all parts
of the Dominion, have the bronzed,
healthy look, and the easy confident
swing which we have learned to look
for in Canadians. The khaki under
their blue overalls proclaims them
soldiers.'they draw military pay and
they know the rudiments of military
drill, but first and last they are woods-
men, with their craft at their finger-
tips. Every man knows bis task and
does it with an enviable independence
of orders or instructions; yet from
the first stage to the last the work
proceeds smoothly and harmoniously.
Let us follow the process, under the
guidance of the officer in charge and
the sergeant who is "foreman of the
"bush."
Facing the main road stands the
mill—"home" the men generally call
it --flanked on the ono side by piles of
logs and on the other by stacks of
sown timber. Walk along the wind-
ing track of a light railway, not yet
completed, which passes behind the
mill, until you come to a clearing,
where burning heaps of "brush" lop-
ped from the tops of the fallen tees
are filling th air with th refreshing
scent of the pine. Here and there
through the blue smolce you cath a
glimpse of a lumberman in a pictur-
esque slouch hat. A little further
and you are among a gang of "fall-
en," Watch how they fell a tree, '70
inches or more thick at the base.
The Felling of a Trce.
A man with an axe kneels at its
foot and with a few dexterous strokes
cuts a deep notch in the trunk a few
inches from the ground. Two others
with a cross -cut saw out through the
stem on the opposite side. In half
a minute the tree begins to lean and
there is a warning shout. A second
or two later, with a loud cracking and
rending sound, it topples and crashes
to the groued. Without any apparent
effort, the "fellers" have controlled
the direction of its fall almost to a
foot
Nest, Without any ado, half a dozen
"swampers" set to work with the axe,
clearing the limbs and straightening
up the tree. Simultaneously a "fit-
ter" with a wooded red, divides the
:item in suitable lengths marking the
cutting pointe with a notch, while twe
ether Men, one earrying e paint pot,
measure the tree$ otter the size in a
book, and mark the stump and the
butt of the severed trunk with a blob
of red paint to show that their work
is done Sawyers then cut the stem
according to the "fitter's" marking,
and the sections are ready to go to
the mill. They are dragged there by
horses over deeply-sbored "trails" and
"sloopways," and take their turn to
come under the saw.
The Keeper's Daughter Wept.
The mill itself is a stoutly -built
structure, made of timber cut and
prepared on the spot, the saws and
engines coming from Canada. It is
practically a raised platform covered
by an iron roof, but open at the sides.
A log to be sawn is rolled into position
on a "carriage," which moves back-
wards and forwards to carry it
through a circular saw. Two men,
standing on the carriage, control its
movements and the position of the
log by 'a number of levers. Opposite
them stands the raost.draportant man
of -a11 p the "sawyer," whose trained
eye sees at a glance what can bo
made of this or that log. The hum
of the engine and the screech of the
caw would drown his voice, so he
gives his decisions by signs. As the
carriage brings a log back through
the saw with the bark removed, he
will hold up one finger or two, and
the "setter" on the carriage, by the
movement of a lever, adjusts the log
so that the next cut shall be one inch
or two inches thick.
It is all done without a pause. For
hours the saw screeches and throws
off a spray of sawdust as it slices up
the logs that a short while before
were splendid living trees, and all
the while other saws, trimming the
edges of the boards and cutting off
the ends, join in the chorus. Is it sur-
prising that the daughter of the keep-
er of the wood was reduced to tears
when she stood by the mill?
FRENCH SHOW HEROISM.
Soldiers and Officers Brave Death
Daily Before Verdun.
Examples of the heroism displayed
by French soldiers of all ranks in the
tremendous attack upon Verdun occur
in every corner of the battlefield, npt
as anything exceptional, but every
day and every hour.
Lieut. G., although badly wounded
in the thigh, remained at the head of
his company for three whole days and
was carried into the thick of the fight-
ing on a stretcher, directing his men,
keeping tab on the munition supply
and even writing a letter to his Col-
'onel telling how he and his men. had
resisted five attacks in four days with-
out giving way a single inch. '
Another Lieutenant, in civil life in-
spector of an insurance company, see-
ing a hostile machine gun taking posi-
tion in a French trench, asked his
Colonel's permission to attack, al-
though it meant certain death. With
a pipe in his mouth and swinging a
little cane he led the onset, calling
out, "Come on, boys, let's charge like
musketeers." Six bullets found lodg-
ment in his body before the trench
was reached. The trench was taken
and the machine gun destroyed.
Lieut. T. joined in a counter attack
which succeeded in driving the enemy
out of a trench he had captured. The
retiring Germans took with them
eight men of Lieut. T.'s company as
prisoners. That would not do for
Lieut. T., who with a single sergeant
jumped out of the 'regained trench,
peppered the Germans with his revol-
ver and brought back his eight men.
For this act of bravery he was pi:e-
moted Captain.
FREIGHT TIEUP RELIEVED.
—.—
Russia Sending 260 Cars Daily Over
Siberia Route.
Two hundred cars are leaving
Vladivostok daily for Siberia and
Ruesia with the result that the
freight congestion has been relieved,
Private cargo as well as Government
supplies is now moving. Recently
there has been a slackness in Govern-
ment supplies, Consequently the
gbods of commercial concerns have
Moved with Considerable freedom.
Many additiotuil slips for ships have
been arranged in the harbor, but this
has not increased the capacity of the
port for general trade to any con-
siderable extent, as heavy railroad
supplies coining from the United
States monopolite Ibm quays much of
tlia time,
PROUD OF THE FRENCH
British Officer Writes of Army's De-
termination to "See This Trough."
The dogged characteristics of the
British are vividly in a letter from
a British officer, and which has just
been received in New York. This
officer is attached to one of the Head-
quarters Divisions in France, and the
interest attached to what he writes
lies in the f act that it reflects un-
questionably the atmosphere of
thought and sentiment along the fir-
ing line. The officer is 0 man of wide
experience in European affairs, and
one thoroughly acquainted with Ger-
man methods. He writes in part:—
"As you can imagine i I rejoined tl-e
army immediately war was declared,
and have been at the front since the
early days of 1914. I was about six
been months with the artillery, but
latterly have been attached to Head-
quarters of my division. It has seem-
ed strange in some instances where I
have entered towns here in France
as a soldier that the last time I was
there on business for you. . But what
a change. Nothing but battered
ruins remain of what previously were
flourishing towns.
The machine shops of course have
been shelled to bits and it is painful
to see the scrap heaps of what were
once fine machine tools. But such is
war in these days and ib certainly
pays no respect to property. Any-
way, we shall see this stunt through
right up to the jag end and you can
bake it from me that someone will pay
and pay dearly, before we are through
with it The thought of poor little
Belgium and the atrocities committed
there, are quite sufficient for us and
we shall wipe it out in our own good
time. All peace bludder is idioticlim-
JAI that has been done and most de-
cidedly the British army will not have
any of it, and I know I can say the
same of our allies.
"The French army has ought magni-
ficently under prodigious disadvant-
ages and it is a pleasure to fight along
side it. As regards the Russians,
you know as much about them as I
do, for I have read only the newspap-
er reports.
"I saw American ambulances, a
whole convoy of them, sometime ago
and they were doing great work with
the stars and stripes flying in front.
Sure it did gladden our hearts to see
the,m. I remember them also at the
battle of Neuve Chappelle last year
and the bravery of their men in com-
ing up to the line during heavy bom-
bardments., was superb. They didn't
waver one instant and were as cool
as cucumbers. I should like to have'
shaken their hands."
JOYS OF STARVATION.
Double Chins and "Corpor-itions e Are
Disappearing.
The London Daily Medi quotes the
Cologne Gazette as aaying that the
food restrictions In Germany have
brought many benefits in their train :
that double -chins and "corporations"
have disappeared from Germany, and
it has been noticed that the popular
health is rapidly improving,
A well-known surgeon, Prof Hutt -
nor, writes in the German Review that
appendicitis is disappearing as a re-
sult of the severe plainness of Ger-
many's war diet, and other ailments
and ins are also decreasing as a re-
sult of abstinence from rich food,
What Happens to All the Pins?
Scientific curiosity has led a French
investigator to look into the old ques-
tion of the fate of •the ordinary brass
pin. By a series of experimente con-
ducted on his own estate he discoeer.
ed that pins, like human beings, go
their way and are resolved into dust.
Hairpins, which the experimenter ab -
served for 164 days, disappeared at
the end of that period, having' been
converted into a ferroUS oxide, a
brownish Mut which was blown away
by the winds, Bright pins took nearly
eighteen monthe to disappear ; poi -
felled steel needlee nearly two and
one.half years ; brass pins had but
little endurance.
ARE CLEAN
NO STICKINESS
ALL DEALERS
G.C.Briggs & Sons
HAM I LYON
MAILED FIST VS,
NAILED' HAND
BISHOP OF LONDON AISCUSSES
WAR AND RELIGION.
Great Britain Is the Instrument of
God in This Great
Struggle -
Undoubtedly the most picturesque
non-military figure in England during
thee war days is a distinguished
clergyman, the Right Rev. A. F, Win-
nington Ingram, Bishop of London,
says Edward Marshal, an American
writer. He is the church militant in-
carnate, and has been ever since the
war began. A great novelist might
make him -the venerable hero of one
of the most fascinating psychological
studies of war -born emotion ever
written
He has stirred the clergy of the
Empire to the fighting pitch, sending
hundreds of them, most of them as
fighters, to the front. All creeds and
decent classes love him; sham, cleri-
cal or otherwise, intensely fears him.
One sentence, as he spoke it to mo
in his plain residence, still rings in
my ears, more because of the manner
of its speaking than because of its
impressiveness of wording. He did
not cast it fiercely at me at he some-
times throws his words at listening
soldiers, but thrust it at me very
grimly, very solemnly, as if it might
be somewhat of the nature of a new
declaration of faith, made necessary
by unprecedented times.
For Freedom of the World.
"I believe that God is on the side
of the allies and that our struggle is
a holy one.
"We are fighting, not for our own
profit, not for the extension of the
British Empire or of the French Re-
public or the Russian domain or for
augmented power or territory for any
one of 'our Governments, but for the
freedom of the world.
"At this late day I cannot discuss
the causes of the war's beginnings,"
he went on. "The reasons which keep
us thrdst into it, determined upon
victory, no matter what the cost may
be, are so very clear to me that I
cannot think that any intelligent Am-
erican can fail to understand them.
"In the minds of many thousand
Englishmen is the conviction that our
nation now is being used as' a weap-
on in God's hands. These men and
women know that the nations which
sank the Lusitania, which betrayed
and ravaged Belgium and stood by
while 350,000 Armenians were done to
death, would not have done these
things had they not lost their fear of
and their faith in God. To those who
think this out faith becomes more
desirable than ever.
"I," said he, "a man of peace and a
Bishop of the God of Peace, regard
this war as worthy and as necessary.
"The man who long has been a
Christian and suddenly starts out to
fight a righteous battle, feeling that
ho is a weapon in God's hands, will
not become irreligious; the nation as
a whole has felt a mighty spiritual
uplift which must help it, not degrade
it. War never emphasizes the forms
of religion; to warriors fighting for
the right the substance of religion
must inevitably be emphasized. No;
the war will not weaken the religion
of Great Britain; it will strengthen
it.
"To use the words of a Scotch
preacher we are fighting for the
nailed hand against the mailed fist.'
"The mere fact that we engage in
such a battle, raising for the task a
volunteer army representing, I be-
lieve, a greater proportion of our
male population of fighting age than
ever was represented before by vol-
unteer fighters esave, perhaps, in the
two armies of your North and South
in the days of your Civil War, before
you fonnd it necessary to introduce
the draft), is, I think, proof positive
that we are not morally deteriorating
through the effects of war."
4.
STRANGE FACTS OF- SCIENCE.
Between them Spain and Portugal
produce 70 per cent, of the world's
cork.
beildoors.
Turning the knob even a trifle rings
o a new lock for residence
A Frenchman has developed a met-
hod for obtaining casein from milk by
electrolysis.
An adjustable attachment for a
baby's chair to hold a nursing' bottle
has been batented.
Experiments have indicated to Hon-
duras that it may become an itnpor-
tent cotton -raising nation.
The Moscow Museum of Agriculture
the oldest in Europe, has celebrated
its fiftieth anniversary.
Glass forks have been invented for
handling pickles to avoid imparting
a metallic twits to them.
A Vermont inventor has patented
blankete for cattle that canna be die -
lodged by animals rollihg,
To judge horse races a Frenchman
has invented a camera that is opera-
ted by a Whining horse breaking a
ittilerses7
Ada. taenrdritimi ade to provide 126;000
in Norway will be hat.
home power for smelting and refining
zinc ore,
For Shipping poultry a crate has
been invented that folds to a quarter
of its (Wended size when empty for
convenience in handling,
Pretty nearly MAI Malt remembers
that he was once a boy, The trouble
is that 00 few of us recall the kind of
boys we were.
CHANNEL TUNNEL
AGAIN ADVOCATED
WAR PROVES HOW USEFUL IT
WOULD ,BE NOW.
Would Help in Military Way and in
Peace Connect With European
• Railways.
The advocates of a Channel tunnel
between England lind France say the
war has thoroughly proven its need.
Nothing but the hostility p1 the Com-
mittee of National Defence prevented
the House of Commons from demand-
ing in 1907 that the project should
then bo proceeded with. If the House
of Commons had its way British
• wounded soldiers wlio are now coming
over from France with many delays
and not without some risks would be
making the journey from Calais to
Dover under the Channel in forty min-
utes and in absolute security, says the
London Chronicle. There would have
been no Sussex disaster, and other re-
grettable incidents in the Channel
would not have arisen. Our food
supply would have been facilitated.
We hear of tons of French vegetables
perishing on their way to us through
delays inseparable from water car-
riage in war tints; those previous
vegetables might have been shot
through to England by tube in an
hour,
Submarines cannot enter tunnels,
and German alines could not have
been got into the tube as long as the
only two entrances to it had been un,
der French and English control. But
even if the French entrance to the
tunnel had fallen into German handle
we may be quite sure that it would
not have been used for an attempt at
invasion; it would have been mor(
likely to be used to enable the enemy
to destroy what in the present condi.
tions would have been a pricelest
means of co-operation between th(
allies.
Over thirty years ago Lord Weise.
ley formulated the inilitary object,
tions to the scheme which have done
duty ever since, though the Zeppelin
and the submarine have modified the
problem of insular defence to a de-
gree of which Lord Wolseley never
dreamed. Lord Wolseley's objections
came to this—that a tunnel would
whittle away Britain's natural mili-
tary advantages as an island, and
would give a Continental power—he
was thinking of France—a more
agreeable median of invasion than
the uncertain sea.
Link All Railroads.
There is provision in the plans f or
filling a mile of the tunnel up to the
roof with water or the whole of it
with asphyxiating gas—from the
English,end—and the English en-
trance would be dominated also by the
guns of the Dover forts. The French,
On their side, seem to be quite con-
tent with a couple of cannon bearing
upon the 18 -foot aperture at Calais,
and certainly there would be very lit-
tle left for an army foolish enough to
advance through a narrow tube in
face of a modern gun.
The Chronicle gives this additional
information:
The tunnel -would link all our Brit-
ish railway systems with all the rail-
way systems of Europe, and so would
give us direct communication with all
the allied and neutral countries ex-
cept where that might be interrupted
by the relative geography of a hostile
country. As nearly all the steamship
routes of the world now bring us food
so would most of the railway systems
of, Europe and Asia bring us food by
the Channel tunnel—all roads by land
as well as by sea wotild lead to Lon-
don.
The plan of the French and Eng-
lish engineers is now well known. It
provides for an "up" tunnel and a
"down" tunnel side by side, 29 miles
long (22 miles under watex), 18 feet
6 inches in diameter, laid entirely in
the grey chalk of the bed of the
Channel. There will be connecting
crossings between the two tunnels
and a footpath for passengers in case
of emergency. Steam locomotives
will bring the trains to the tunnel, but
they will be taken through the tunnel 0
itself by electric motors. Sir Francis
Fox, the famous engineer, declares
that the problem of ventilation in this
case is Dimple compared with the
cases of the Simplon and Mersey tun-
nels.
Moat of the Continental gages are
about the same as the English—the
only exceptions are those of Russia
and Spain—so that very long journeys
could be made from London without
change of carriage, The tunnel would
reduce the journey to Paris by two
hours. It is estimated that it would
cost 116,000,000, that the working ex.
pulses would be 14201000 a year, and
the annual receipth 11,588,000, show-
inga profit pf £1,118,000, or seven
per cent. The estimate of the re-
ceipts is extremely conservative.
Bob a tunnel of only two lines with
single lines will no longer satisfy the
probable demands of traffic. We
ought to have at long four tracka—
two in each tunnel, ,
Mildred—Since our engagement
George has been perfectly devoted bo
me. Do you think Ito will continue
to love me when I am id?eClarice-1
Really, dear, I can't gay—but yeti%
soon know.
se