The day the inauguration of the Submarine Tunnel will be celebrated, England will no longer be an island, and that is a stupendous event in the history of an island people.... Islanders have always considered themselves the favorites of Providence, which has undertaken to provide for their security and independence.... They congratulate themselves on their separation from the rest of the world by natural frontiers over which nobody can squabble. They feel that they hold their destiny in their own hands, and that the effect of the follies and crimes of others could not reach them.... Their character is affected by this. Like Great Britain, every Englishman is an island where it is not easy to land. And the article asked, wonderingly, "What would an England that was not an island be?" The deliberations of the scientific investigating committee appointed by the War Office and presided over by Sir Archibald Alison lasted from the latter part of February until the middle of May. In the committee's report of its findings to the War Office, the complexity and solemn nature of the questions laid before it were indicated by their mere classification and subclassification. Thus, the contingencies for rendering a Channel tunnel absolutely useless to an enemy were considered under the headings of: I. Surprise from Within II. Attack from Without And the committee reported that it had considered measures to secure the tunnel against (I) under such subcategories as: 1. Fortifications 2. Closure or temporary obstructions 3. Explosion by mines or charges 4. Flooding a. Temporary b. Permanent After reviewing the situation in great detail, and from every aspect, the committee suggested a long list of precautionary measures that, it said, it would be necessary to use, singly or in combination, to protect and seal off the tunnel against any enemy attempts to invade England directly through the tunnel or by seizing the English end from the outside and using it as a bridgehead for invasion. The list included these recommendations: The mouth of the tunnel should be protected by "a portcullis or other defensible barrier." A trap bridge should be set in connection with this portcullis. Means should be provided for closing off the ventilation, and for "discharging irrespirable gases or vapors into the tunnel." Arrangements should be made for rapidly discharging loads of shingle into the land portion of the tunnel, shutting it off. The land portion of the tunnel should be thoroughly mined with explosives capable of being fired by remote control exercised not only from within the central fort at Dover but also from more distant points inland, so that even if the protective fortress fell to the enemy, the tunnel still could be permanently destroyed.