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CALAIS Revival The English Channel tunnel, or “Chunnel,” is once more being revived. Two bank consortiums, one French and one British, have newly concluded that financing for the project is perfectly possible to obtain in the international financial market, provided, of course, that the loans are guaranteed by the two governments. The banks are opting for the classic plan of twin railroad tunnels covering the 22 miles between Calais and Dover, with a smaller service tunnel in between. The tunnel trains would be able to transport 3,600 vehicles an hour in each direction, representing 60 per cent of the current ferry traffic. This would permit an 8 or 9 per cent return on the investment. Moreover the Strait of Dover is the most crowded in the world. Five hundred vessels pass through it every day, and the figure is expected to double in the next twenty years. The governments are less enthusiastic than the banks, however, particularly the French government, which remembers the abandoned tunnel attempt of 1975, when several hundred yards of digging were carried out on both shores. One solution would be to have the loans guaranteed by the European Economic Community, which has a fixed interest, after all, in binding its component parts more closely together.

ROME Dubious Battle Arms for export can sometimes become an awkward commodity. This is a precept being pondered by the Italian authorities, who, in 1980, okayed contracts worth $2 billion for the construction of 11 warships for the Iraqi navy. The shipyards are now almost ready to deliver the ships, and suddenly it looks, according to foreign observers here, as if the Italians may be furnishing Iraq a fleet that could sweep the Persian Gulf. Spokesmen for the shipyards in Venice and La Spezia that are building the vessels (four frigates and six corvettes, all with missile capabilities, and a supply ship) are understandably reluctant to say when exactly they can be turned over to their Iraqi crews and skippers; but it is clear that they are in the last fitting-out stages of construction. Meanwhile the huge Italian industrial conglomerate that controls the shipyards finds itself also doing business with Iraq’s foe, Iran. It is engaged in building in that country a big steel mill and a seaport, worth even more commercially.

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CALAIS Revival The English Channel tunnel, or “Chunnel,” is once more being revived. Two bank consortiums, one French and one British, have newly concluded that financing for the project is perfectly possible to obtain in the international financial market, provided, of course, that the loans are guaranteed by the two governments. The banks are opting for the classic plan of twin railroad tunnels covering the 22 miles between Calais and Dover, with a smaller service tunnel in between. The tunnel trains would be able to transport 3,600 vehicles an hour in each direction, representing 60 per cent of the current ferry traffic. This would permit an 8 or 9 per cent return on the investment. Moreover the Strait of Dover is the most crowded in the world. Five hundred vessels pass through it every day, and the figure is expected to double in the next twenty years. The governments are less enthusiastic than the banks, however, particularly the French government, which remembers the abandoned tunnel attempt of 1975, when several hundred yards of digging were carried out on both shores. One solution would be to have the loans guaranteed by the European Economic Community, which has a fixed interest, after all, in binding its component parts more closely together.

ROME Dubious Battle Arms for export can sometimes become an awkward commodity. This is a precept being pondered by the Italian authorities, who, in 1980, okayed contracts worth $2 billion for the construction of 11 warships for the Iraqi navy. The shipyards are now almost ready to deliver the ships, and suddenly it looks, according to foreign observers here, as if the Italians may be furnishing Iraq a fleet that could sweep the Persian Gulf. Spokesmen for the shipyards in Venice and La Spezia that are building the vessels (four frigates and six corvettes, all with missile capabilities, and a supply ship) are understandably reluctant to say when exactly they can be turned over to their Iraqi crews and skippers; but it is clear that they are in the last fitting-out stages of construction. Meanwhile the huge Italian industrial conglomerate that controls the shipyards finds itself also doing business with Iraq’s foe, Iran. It is engaged in building in that country a big steel mill and a seaport, worth even more commercially.