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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 31, 1986
PAGE 5
Thousands of years after the land bridge between them
subsided into the sea, France and Britain are set to rejoin
each other in a bold engineering project that will end the
British Isles' physical isolation f·
rom Europe.... For
Britain, whose history has been profoundly shaped by the
defensive, cultural and political moat dividing it from
continental Europe, the link will have enormous significance.
For
2,
nation that
rn
believed it � set apart from
continental Europe QY
rn
divine right, the psychological
impact of such a permanent link is hard to overestimate.
Fear of losing its defensive wall drove Britain to abandon
the first attempt to bore a rail tunnel under the channel
when it halted an Anglo-French project in 1883. Almost a
century later, in 1975, Britain halted a second tunnel--this
time for financial reasons••••
The third major bid to carry out the scheme originally
dreamed up in 1802 by an engineer of French Emperor Napoleon
Bonaparte will start in a much changed Britain. The country
is conspicuously more European.
Almost half of British
exports and imports now go to or come from EC partners, a
significant shift from a decade ago••••
The degree to which France and Britain have narrowed their
differences--even agreeing how motorists would switch over
from driving on the left in Britain to the right in France-
has surprised officials in both capitals.
Yet relations
between the two neighbors have never been easy•••• In
Britain, where London landmarks such as Trafalgar Square and
Waterloo station commemorate victories over the French, there
remains a residual hostility toward France. It is largely
mirrored across the channel.... French mistrust of Britain
has, if anything, deepened under Thatcher•••• [Mrs. Thatcher
was voted in one recent French opinion poll as the second
most unpopular leader--after Libya's Col. Qadhafi!J....
Mitterrand and Thatcher see it as an undertaking on a grand
scale that will crown their achievements in government. Both
stand to gain from what the. LONDON FINANCIAL TIMES--arguing
that there is no compelling economic case to replace the
present cross-channel ferries--said would be essentially a
political link.
Writing in the December 14 issue of the British newsmagazine, THE
SPECTATOR, author Gaving Stamp expressed deep-seated reservations about
proceeding with the fixed link:
What is clear to me, however, is that there is a fifth
solution to the problem which the Government ought to be
considering but apparently is not: no fixed link at all••••
In the end, however, arguments about the tunnel are
subjective and emotional•••• England is--or was--a maritime
nation
and the
destruction of ferry services will
increasingly make us a physical appendage of Europe and
reduce further the importance of our shipping and ports.
Further� and threats of invasion may� unlikely but l