§ BARON HENRY DE WORMS (Liverpool, East Toxteth)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that the highest military and naval authorities in this country, sitting on the Royal Commission to inquire into the expediency of allowing the proposed Channel Tunnel to be made or examined as witnesses, expressed a decidedly adverse opinion on strategic and national grounds; whether he is further aware that the annual notice of opposition to the Channel Tunnel Bill, although given by the representative of the Board of Trade, as responsible for the control of railways, has hitherto always been given with the direct concurrence of the War Office and the Admiralty; and whether he can state that the naval and military authorities responsible for the defence of the country have in any way modified the views held and expressed by them, as before referred to, and have advised the Board of Trade to withdraw all opposition to the Bill and to support it?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANThe important part of the question is in the last paragraph, to which my answer is in the negative.
§ BARON H. DE WORMSMy question is do the Government, in face of the views of the military authorities, intend to allow this scheme to proceed?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANThe question was, had they modified their views. I answered that in the negative.
§ BARON H. DE WORMSThen I will ask whether the Report of the Committee made to the House on the Channel Tunnel Bill was not to the effect that the majority of the Committee were of opinion that Parliamentary sanction should not be given to submarine communication between England and France, and that 13 naval and military witnesses were of the same opinion, only one expressing a contrary opinion; and whether, in view of this fact, Her Majesty's Government intend to sanction the Channel Tunnel?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANI am not answering for Her Majesty's Government. Any question on that score had better be addressed to my right hon. Friend.
§ BARON H. DE WORMSI ask the right hon. Gentleman this question—whether the War Office have not always expressed the opinion that such works would be dangerous; and whether the right hon. Gentleman, as head of the War Office, cannot speak on behalf of the Government and say whether he does or does not agree with that opinion?
§ MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANWhat does the right hon. Gentleman mean by the War Office? The naval and military authorities are now of the same opinion as hitherto, and that is against the Channel Tunnel. How often am I obliged to say that in order to make the right hon. Gentleman understand?