WANTED! D.G. OF N.T.
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By " The Inspector."
TE OFFICIAL MIND. revels in alphabetical Habbreviations. ,Exactly why this is so has all along rather puzzled me. Few would dare to suggest that it reflects a desire for simplicity, although there may be something in the claim for uniformity. Officialdom, whether it be naval or military, or mere civilian service, loves the alphabet. I should hate to suggest that this characteristic is due te the fact that many departmental bigwigs have attained to nothing more advanced than the A.B.C. of their speciality, although I have heard this unkindly suggested. Be that as it may, the official likes to talk of and to write to the D. of D.M.G.P.b. or the A.D.D. of L.4.B. He very often, as a reward, is permitted to call himself C.B.E., or something similar, for ever after, and then presumably he is happy.
Upon first consideration one would have imagined that there were already sufficient alphabetical titles in this war-occupied country of ours. Those who are not D.D. of something or other are favoured with classifteation aa 03 or B3. If organization become only a little more all-embracing, there will be penalties for those who persist in continuing to answer anything but "N. or M." to the question "What is your name ?" The days of Smith or Brown will then be -numbered. While departments and committees are multiplying as the fruit of the earth, let us have yet another Director General or Dictator, whichever you please. Let us then have a Director General of National Transport and a host of assistants and deputies to help him out with the alphabet.
There are already in existence to my knowledge, a very capable D. of.M.T. (or is it C.M.T. ?) Mr. Percy Martin ; an equallY efficient D.C.M.T., Sir Oapel Ho]den; and Director of Railway Transport apd of Marine Transport respectively. The D.M.T.s, though, have no function in the direction of transport per se, I believe. They merely control the provision of the means of Government mechanical transport, and, in the doing of it, unavoidably exclude most else that is purely civilian. The War Office controls the actual Army transport. The Navy, always glad to have a finger in every pie, whether it be balloons or their own land transport, very largely sees to its own haulage on terra firma. The Director of Railway .Transport and the Railway Executive control railway haulage, and there is a similar organization for the use of the high seas, and yet another, it transpires, for the "inland waterways!' With it all there is no one to collate the activities of these various authoritiea, and there is positively nobody who cares, officially, to the slightest extent why two rival vans take a parcel each from the City to the suburbs at exactly
the same time.
Practically speaking, it is highly improbable that anything like effectual control could be vested in one authority, who should be charged wit ti eliminating all waste mileage or short loading, whether it he of an Army lorry or a butcher's van. But the consideration of what it might set out to achieve is not without interest, as throwing some light on the overlapping, and alternatively the underla;pping, which take FAi place.
Had we a Load Controller, our fanciful D.G. of N.T., as we have a Food Controller, he would have adeopate powers to settle the present irritating little
dispute between rail transport and cab transport i London, he would knock their heads together and te them to get on with the job. He would take th tram versus motorbus problem still further in han and insist on adequate distribution of services, regarc less of antagonistic interests and desire for compet tion. He would instruct the Army authorities, hov ever terrible that may sound, that no empty lorric were to be delivered by road from makers' works r one end of the Kingdom to any depots at the othei He would see to it that no more touring cars wez used for pleasure purposes under the guise of Nationu Volunteer, Special Constabulary, V.A.D., Society fc Collecting Greengrocery for Exiled Serbians, or othc activities conspicuously advertised on windscreen: and he would alternatively ensure that those reall engaged on National Service could get to and froi their work with reasonable certainty and some eon fore He would even dare to suggest to the almighl A.S.C. himself, and there must be such a person, tlu it is not necessary* to send 12 general-service wagor and their draught mules and drivers to cart a ton hay from a Wiltshire farmer, and to find an aclequal reply to the Army excuse that this was-the only us ful way to exercise the mules.
Once our mythical and superman Director Gener got really busy, he could embark on a scheme of cox preherisive co-operation •between all local traders, pooling of all transport facilities, and the ruling m of untold miles of half-empty and quite-empty ru: fling on the part of tradesmen's carts and 'the drivers. He could set himself the task of abolishit the oft-repeated excuse, "The real trouble, you knoi madam, is carriage. • There are plenty of pickh walnuts; but we eimply can't get them delivered."
No; I am afraid the whole thing is too big for 13 divided control. Our present piecemeal methods wi of necessity, have to suffice for the war period. 0 transpon for civilian purposes is almost sufficient Our needs if it were only organized. Now that PI: rods and Selfridge',s have agreed on a lower price f bread, I wonder if they will agree to deliver ea other's? Perhaps they will not. Jones, my lo( butcher, most certainly will not deliver a leg of mi ton to me from Brown's across the way. And I not imagine any D.G of N.T. would-force him to
The National Freight Exchanges would sound ti much like the now defunct Labour Exchanges to ha much of a chance of success, unless they were r
christened. Several enterprising local authoriti have initiated bureaux destined to encourage ti "back load," but with what success? I do not see to have been informed by the "0.M." in recent day 1 suspect none too well, though I hope it were bettc Much -money has been spent and many grey hairs e couraged in peace time in the pursuit of the fasci ating Freight and Exchange idea. Schemes cf no le ultimate ambition than Mr. Gattie's, but of tiff-fere: programme, have proved entirely immobile. If the ever were a chance for a Freight Exchange, the effc must be a national one, and never will the need for t: facilities it would offer be so potent as now. Th would be a task for the D,G. of N.T.