_Being a probable Extract from the "City Intelligence" for 1900._
THE half-yearly meeting to discuss the Report just issued by the Chairman
and Directors of the Amalgamated International Anglo-French Submarine
Channel Tunnel Railway Company was held in the Company's Fortress Boardroom
yesterday afternoon, and, owing to the present critical Continental
outlook, as might have been expected, succeeded in securing the attendance
of an unusually large number of shareholders.
The Chairman, who on rising was received with prolonged hooting and a
chorus, again and again renewed _con amore_ by the assembled audience, of
"_And he's a jolly bad fellow!_" having, at length, though frequently
interrupted, obtained something like a hearing, was understood to say, that
he had little to offer in the shape of comment on the Report submitted to
the meeting. (_Groans._) The causes of its unsatisfactory nature were
patent to all. Owing to their having been compelled, in what he now fully
recognised was a slavish and mistaken obedience to a popular clamour (_a
Voice, "You're right!_"), three years ago, in the height of a sudden scare
about invasion--("_Oh! oh!_")--to let the water in and flood the
Tunnel--(_groans_)--they had been occupied ever since in pumping it out
again, and though now he was glad to announce that the last bucketful had
been emptied out, and that the traffic would be resumed
forthwith--(_cheers_)--still the operation had cost them three millions of
money, that they had to get from the market in the shape of Seventeen per
Cent. First Preference Debentures--("_Oh! oh!_")--on which, however, he
trusted that a favourable season's receipts might enable them possibly to
pay a next half-year's dividend of three and sixpence. (_Prolonged
groans._) It was not much; still, it was something. ("_Oh! oh!_") But if
they wished to secure even this modest remuneration for their money, they
must make up their minds, especially at the present moment, when there was
a daily,--he might almost say, an hourly,--expectation of the withdrawal of
their Ambassador from Paris, that there must be no more craven yielding to
delusive impulses of an idiotic patriotism--(_loud cheers_),--in a word, no
more talk about closing the Tunnel on the paltry plea of "national
security." (_Prolonged cheering._) He was glad to hear those cheers. It was
an endorsement of the standpoint that he and his Directors meant to take in
the present crisis, which was, in effect, to remind themselves that they
were shareholders of the Anglo-French Submarine Channel Tunnel Railway
Company first--and Englishmen afterwards--(_thunders of applause, and loud
and prolonged cheering_);--and that, if called upon to shed their life's
blood, it would be solely in defence of that great engineering work, the
true monument of peace, in which their aspirations, their hopes, and, above
all, their capital, had been so fearlessly embarked and largely
invested.(_Renewed enthusiasm._)
A Shareholder here rose, and said, that if there really was, as the
Chairman seemed to imply, a probability that war with our friendly
neighbours might break out at any minute, would it not be advisable, in the
interests of the Company, to come to some amicable and therefore
satisfactory commercial arrangement for the transit of troops through the
Tunnel, which, no doubt, it would be their first object to
secure.(_Laughter._) There might possibly be some stupid attempt of our own
Government forces to seize upon and even damage, with a view to rendering
the Tunnel useless, the works commanding this end of it. Should not a
Volunteer Corps of Shareholders be at once organised--("_Hear!
hear!_")--for the purpose of keeping them until the French Military
Authorities came over in sufficient force to enable them to seize and
securely hold them against all comers? He trusted he was not wanting in a
well-balanced and legitimate patriotism--("_No! no!_")--but like their
respected Chairman, he felt that there was a higher claim, a louder call
than that addressed to an Englishman by his country, and that was the deep,
grim, stern and stirring appeal made to the Seventeen per Cent.
Debenture-holder by his Company.(_Roars of laughter._)
Considerable uproar here arose over the ejection from the meeting of a
protesting Shareholder, who injudiciously proposed an Amendment to the
Report to the effect that, "In the face of grave National danger, the
Company ought to be prepared, even if it involved serious financial loss,
to close their Tunnel, if such a step should be regarded as necessary to
the security of the country by the military advisers of the Government."
This proposition was howled down, and the Chairman was again about to
address the now somewhat quieted meeting, when a copy of an evening paper,
announcing the declaration of war, and the simultaneous seizure of the
British end of the Tunnel that morning by two hundred French troops, who
had crossed from Boulogne by yesterday's evening Mail-boat, and had passed
the night at Folkestone in disguise, was handed up on to the platform.
THE CHAIRMAN (_after reading out the various items of intelligence to the
Audience, who listened to them with breathless excitement_). Well,
Gentlemen, in the face of this not entirely unsuspected
news--(_laughter_)-our course is, I think, pretty clear. We must at once
dispatch a deputation to make the best terms we can with the French General
in command, for the transit of the one or two, or even three hundred
thousand troops they propose to bring over. (_Cheers._) Even if we get only
an excursion fare out of them, it will be something. ("_Hear, hear!_") And,
at least, we shall be able to congratulate ourselves on this occasion with
a sterling and heartfelt satisfaction that, whether the country go to the
dogs or not--(_roars of laughter_)--the property of the Company will, at
any rate, be preserved. (_Enthusiastic applause._) The Chairman, who
continued his address amid mingled cheers and laughter in the same strain,
having submitted the names to form the proposed deputation to the meeting,
the Shareholders dispersed, apparently in the highest spirits, singing a
parody of the great national ditty, in which the line, "_Britons ever,
ever, ever will be knaves_," with an accompaniment of loud guffaws of
laughter, struck the listening ear, as they betook themselves to their
respective homes.
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