§ LORD EUSTACE CECILasked the President of the Board of Trade, Whether the Government have as yet arrived at any decision with regard to the question of the Channel Tunnel?
§ MR. CHAMBERLAINSir, the decision of the Government upon the present state of this question was announced in the last Session in the month of August, when I said, in moving that the Order for the Second Reading of the Channel Tunnel Bill should be discharged, that the Government had felt it their duty to appoint early next Session a Joint Committee of both Houses to consider the question. In accordance with that decision the Government intend shortly to propose the appointment of a Committee to inquire and report whether it is expedient that Parliamentary sanction should be given to a submarine communication between England and France; and, if so, on what conditions. It will probably be expedient that the second reading of the two Bills now before the House should be postponed until that Committee has reported. The proposal is that the 579 Joint Committee shall consist of five Members of this House and of five Members of the House of Lords.