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LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.

16th November 1920
Page 14
Page 14, 16th November 1920 — LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Right-hand Drive Chars-a-bancs. Swopping Lorries for Silk.

AS WITH SO MANY of these nine-day wonders, for the intensity of which the daily Press is also almost entirely responsible, The Daily Mail and other journals that follow in its wake have quickly 'found something more ' meaty" than the recent agitation against the "left-hand drive " with which to mitigate, the public's pangs of news hunger. The nation is now, it will be recalled, having its intelligence schooled on the -highly important question of' hats on one ' page, and. on circulation squabbles with, neighbours on another. Although the daily Press has ceased to excite the public— perhaps while advertisements are tumbling in for the Motor' Shows--on the questions of left-hand steering and of gigantic juggernauts (journalese for chars-h-bancs), the industry itself' is concerned with the former problem, and quite a lot. of discussion took place at the Olympia Heavy Show on the subj ect. . • So long' as the rule of the road in Britain is " Reap to the Left," so long must our " off side's" be the rigli-t-hand side, and there we must drive and steer. When we change, our rule of the road (and ?. against that course there are profound arguments to be advanced), we can change our drivers' position. The two conditions must run. together. It is no argument.to say, that tens of thousands of our lorries ran in France and ." kept to the right" quite safely. As a matter of fact, there were many accidents, at . first, but What had a greater effect was the rigid military contrel of traffic' and the relative absence of other .irehicles. .

The return to right-hand drive Will come hi time, of course, to far,as conversions will effect it. And the conversions on the lighter -American machines may be made quite agood job. The heavier vehkles involve, however,: amore, difficult and expensive con-. version, and it is on those very machines that the change is Most important. I recently inspected a left-hand-drive Packard, probably, an ex-warservice machine. Fitted up for goods transport, I would have nothing to say against the vehicle, but it has,heen fitted up with a very large and commodious Char-a-banes batlF, —with-seats on both sides of the driver. If that machine be allowed to run in some districts of which we all know, disaster, sooner or

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later, is quite certain, and I go se far as to claim that, whatever be done with the Fords and other imported ma-chines which do , not conform to our centuries-old practice, left-hand drive chars-a banes should not be allowed on the road at all.;

Swopping Lorries for Silk.

Overseas trade is, of Course, in a difficult position, because of the imrriediate financial condition, and yet. some of the leading firths of manufacturers revert very considerable brainless indeed in far-off climes. More would be possible. if finance were more certain

in some of the recentlycountries. Although some of then). have no. 'money—or next to none, they very often have excess quantities of their own home-grown or home-made productions locke.d up for similar, if more. intricate, reasons of finance. I, recently, have heard of several deals that have been put through on the spot by the terms of which silk, oil, , and corn, have been taken in exchange for lorries, and the 'negotiations have resulted in handsome profits to the astute ,venders: Quite a return _ to Phoenician bartering methoth often: wonder, in spite of our infinite and splendid . capacity for acquiring other people's country overseas! arid for living 'in it on Government pay, it we have any outstanding talent for, overseas trade in its more detailed ramificationi—if we understand its poesibilities as do the German and the foreign Jew. We do a• lot in our overseas possessions, but ,y2'e. do about. 0416-tenth of What foreigners do for us. in our own possessions. 'The Englishman understands a straight deal • he Cauld sell a locomotive to as Mandarin if-lie wanted -it, but, if I desired to sell one to a Chinaman who didn't want it and who, in any case, waS not going to pay me in cash or in ' promise' of cash, I must confess I should do better– to employ a foreign Jew or a German, much as 1' dislike them both, to get rid of the lose by some angular, method and to -recompense me by taking, something other than cash-, but as security, concession, barter, or what not,of negotiable value—and good value. In the wide world, I do not think -we are very good salesmen. We understand salesmanship from the point of view of the shopkeeper and, not from that of the financier..

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