Abstract

The opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 was accompanied by the publication of Keith Wilson's study, Channel Tunnel Visions, 1850-1945: Dreams and Nightmares (London 1994).3 This study has filled a major gap, for the extensive government attention to the tunnel question in the interwar period has received little academic attention. Before Wilson, the only detailed published study of government policy at that time was a short article on the 1919-20 discussions. A number of general works covered the broad history of the idea from the late eighteenth century, the most detailed being those by Michael Bonavia and Jean-Pierre Navailles.4 Meanwhile, a French doctoral thesis by Bernard Sasso covered British government discussions from 1870 to 1930 in considerable detail, but only from the perspective of how the issue can be seen as representative of broad trends in Anglo-French relations, rather than tackling Britain's general view of Europe.5 However, there are still gaps to be filled. This article is based on the main archives of the various British government departments that took part in the exhaustive enquiry of 1929-30, which was far greater in scope than that of 1919-20. It considers why, when the scheme had been rejected with little discussion in 1920, the situation

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