Mr. Churchill received a deputation yesterday week which urged the
Board of Trade to intervene with a view to terminating the deadlock which had arisen over the Channel Ferry scheme. Lord Weardale, who introduced the deputa- tion, explained that while both Governments encouraged the scheme, the Dover Harbour authority were so far indisposed to grant the necessary accommodation. The alleged difficulties on this score were pronounced by Sir John Wolfe Barry to be groundless, Sir William White vouched for the ease with which steamers of suitable capacity could be constructed, and Sir Charles Rivers Wilson and Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge furnished valuable infor- mation as to the successful and profitable working of train-ferries under parallel conditions in Canada and the United States. Mr. Churchill in a sympathetic reply declared that the ferry scheme seemed to him to be the only practicable improvement on the existing defective system, and expressed his willingness to promote a direct understanding between its advocates and the railway company in regard to the crucial question of the accommodation and working of the ferry in Dover Harbour. To that end he proposed to summon a free conference between the experts on both sides.
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