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• The Minister at the inst. of T. Dinner

22nd February 1935
Page 54
Page 54, 22nd February 1935 — • The Minister at the inst. of T. Dinner
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

TFIR Minister of Transport, Mr. L. Hore-Belisha, M.P., was amongst the speakers at the annual dinner of the Institute of Transport, which was held in London, last Friday. The president, Mr. Sidney E. Garcke, occupied the chair.

In his speech, Mr. Hare-Belisha said that, in Great Britain, over e2,000,000,000 of capital was invested and over 2,000,000 persons (a sixth of the whole working population) were engaged in transport. In addition to water and air, its influence extended over 177,000 miles of road and 20,000 route-miles of railways.

Had there been, from the beginning, some directing force taking a comprehensive view of communications, we should not have bad, he continued, first the roads sacrificed to the waterways, then the waterways to the railways and, finally, the railways, as it has been claimed, sacrificed to the roads. The Ministry of Transport was a guarantee that, in the future, those errors would not be repeated.

Referring to the interdependence of the various means for transport, the Minister thought that the most hopeful tendency was the manner in which each branch was endeavouring, not so much to take traffic from the other, as to learn from the other. Whilst the railways had been impelled to improve n:30

their facilities by the growth of road transport, the latter still had, in the Minister's opinion, much to learn from

the railways. .

Finally, Mr. HOre-Belisha promised to do all in his power to assist highways authorities to remove the shortcomings of the existing road system.

Mr. Garcke, referring to the phenomenal progress of the Institute, said that transport had become a science and the transport expert a professional man. Perhaps; fortunately, the transport profession had not yet achieved the exclusiveness of that of law or medicine, in both of which self. advertisement was. forbidden !

As an instance of the extensive interests of the Institute, Mr. Garcke remarked that it had .branches in Australia, South Africa and South America, as well as in the provinces of Great Britain. He announced that, in connection with the Royal Jubilee, the Institute was to present a loyal address to His Majesty the King, the patron.

The speaker requested the Minister to keep the number of regulations within reasonable 'hounds, and ventured the opinion that, during the past few years, the use of the roads had increased to a greater extent than statistics showed.

In a light speech, Sir Josiah C. Stamp, G.C.B., G.B.E., a past president of the Institute, declared that the

railways would not, as Mr. Garcke had . suggested, abolish all roads if they had their way, because there must be roads to the railway stations. Sir Josiah was followed by Baron Georg Franckenstein, the Austrian Minister in London.

Viscount Goschen, P.C., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., C.B.E., V.D., who is chairman of the Transport Advisory Council and of the Safety First Committee, offered the thanks of the public for the invaluable services rendered by transport operators. He declared that trar4ort facilities were bringing peace in the less-developed overseas countries, as well as promoting commerce. In India, agriculture had benefited considerably from the tour made by two motor vehicles carrying the latest implements and the best classes of seed, and from the illustrated lectures given.

Amongst the' notable guests present were Mr. James France ( president, Commercial Motor Users Association), Professor W. M. Thornton, 0.B.E. (president, Institution of Electrical Engineers), Sir Richard Redmayne, K.C.B. (president, Institution of Civil Engineers), Sir David J. Owen, Mr. William Whitelaw and Mr. Roger T. Smith (past presidents), Mr, W. H. Gaunt, 0-BE., Lt.-Col. F. C. Shelrnerdine, C.I.E., C.B.E., Sir Alexander Gibb, G.B.E., C.B., Mr. W. Vane Mor land and Sir C. Hurcombe, C.B.


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