Haulage Renationalization Pledges by Labour
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT THREE separate pledges that the road I haulage industry would be renationalized if a Labour Government is returned at the next General Election were given at the Labour Party conference at Brighton last week.
The first came from Mr. James Callaghan, Labour's " Shadow " Chancellor, when he replied to the economic debate. In a speech which looked askance at too heavy commitment in advance of a Labour Government. he said the party was only bound by what was laid down in "Signpost for the Sixties."
But he added: "We intend to bring back into public ownership the steel industry and road haulage." After promising no more than a look at the other industries mentioned in the debate, he warned that they had to be careful when dealing with such a "sensitive " subject as public ownership. "The British people are entitled to know before the Labour Party becomes the Government what industries we intend to take into public ownership."
The same line was taken in the very last debate of the conference by the new chairman of the Party, Mr. Dal Davies, assistant general secretary of the steelworkers' union. Although his words on road haulage were a little different, their purport was the same.
"We shall build up British Road Services until we have once again a firstrate publicly owned road haulage industry," he said.
For good measure the pledge was made for the third time by Mr. Gaitskell himself—although this time outside the conference hall. Speaking at a Brighton Young Fabian Society meeting held in connection with the conference, he said that if the Labour Party were returned to power it would co-ordinate longdistance road haulage with the railways. This, he said was the "only possible solution."
The crisis on the railways has pushed the problem of the place road haulage should play in the nation's transport system right to the forefront. As far as the Labour Party is concerned, there can be no doubt that they are now firmly and irrevocably committed to bringing long-distance road .services under public control.
The question of C licences has, however, still to be worked out by the party, A resolution put on the agenda by the B20 Scottish Horse and Motormen's Association was remitted for consideration by the National Executive Committee.
This called on the executive to publish its intention on the renationalization of road haulage and introduce a propaganda campaign amongst commercial road transport workers. In addition, it called for a full examination into C and C contract hiring _licences operation "with a view to their integration into the transport system."