Conducted by EDMUND DANGERFIELD. Editor: EDWARD SHRAPNELL SMITH. The Royal Automobile Club and Commercial Motoring.
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The recent Coronation Motor Parade was organized by the Commercial Motor Users Association, but it was undertaken with the support of both the Royal Automobile Club and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. We feel quite sure that every acknowledgment is due to both co-operating bodies, in respect alike of financial aid and the prestige secured. The contribution of the S.M.M.T. to the general expenses and general prize fund was i'10.5, and the fact of that valuable donation has already been officially noticed. Now, it remains, following the decision of the Committee of the Royal Automobile Club last week, to announce that this country's parent organization has given no less a sum than £360 towards a total expenditure of approximately 2760. At a time when there is some inclination, regardless of actual facts and work done, to talk and write about the R.A.C, as though it were purely a social institution, to the exclusion of any recognition for the continuous work of its legal, touring, engineering and other branches, we feel that this latest instance of broadminded interest in the utility branch of the motor movement should be known far and wide. It was through the good offices of the R.A.C. that His Majesty the King gave his patronage to the Parade, which patronage helped to bring about the enormous increase in the number of entries, compared with the year 1910—an increase of fully :300 per cent. The Committee of the Club, in sanctioning the generous donation which we have named, has shown that it regards the Commercial Motor Users Association as a body which is deserving of whole-hearted backing. We feel confident that owners and drivers will fully appreciate the substantial character of the help given, and we are also confident that certain intended announcements in regard to the parade programme for next year will meet with cordial reception on publication.
£55,000,000 for the Roads.
We commend to the early attention of the Chancellor of the Exchequer the matter of a National Road Loan. The sum of gee,000,000 is required, on the authority of recognized experts in road construction, of whom we may quote Mr. H. P. Mavbury, the county surveyor of Kent, and Mr. J. Walker Smith, of the Scottish Local Government Board, to cover the initial capital expenditure upon the reconstruction and strengthening of some 28,000 miles of trunk roads in Great Britain. This figure should
stagger nobody. it is a smaller capital sum than the expenditure upon the Civil Services of the country in a single year, and, similarly, it is less than we spend, also in a single year, upon the two arms of National Defence. Can it fairly be said, that it is of lesser importance to the country as a whole, that the era of good roads should thus be advanced, at the expenditure named, than that any other national services should be maintained? We think not.. The roads provide, or should provide, for the efficient discharge of national services of various kinds. Of course, were.a. National Road Loan to be issued, the matter of the service of the debt would call for prior settlement. On a 10 years' basis, taking the precedent of the loan of £60,000 for Berkshire, which was recently approved by the Local Government Board in consultation with the Road Board, the average annual charges, to cover interest and redemption, would jointly he some £7,400,000. Anybody who realizes the important bearing which modern roads have upon the commercial prosperity of this country, and also upon the problem of national_ defence, will at once agree that the benefits to be derived more than justify this outgo. Finally, again taking the precedent of the loan to the Berks. County Council, to which earlier reference has been made, road experts are agreed that the subsequent cost of annual maintenance, which would, as heretofore, devolve upon the local authorities, would be distinctly less, for good roads, than it now is in respect. of bad roads. Hence, every fundamental. consideration is in favour of the issuing of a National Road Loan, whilst it goes without saying that the impetus to home employment would be beneficial in every conceivable sense.
Eastern Spirit.
Owners of internal-combustion-engined vehicles are under a real obligation to Sir Marcus Samuel, Bart., Mr. Samuel Samuel, and their colleagues in the "
Shell" Transport Co. and the allied Royal Dutch Co. Only five years ago, the .gravest fearswere entertained, both in manufacturing and using circles, with regard to threatened increases in the price of motor spirit, due to anticipated shortages of supply. In an interview with Sir Marcus, which appeared in the issue of this journal dated the lith January, 1906, when that pioneer of Eastern trade exclusively cornmuniceted to us, in consultation with Mr. H. W. A. Deterding, assurances under both heads, we were somewhat-severely criticised for our confidence in his statements, and for our adherence to the view that there was no occasion for hesitancy on the part of persons who were contemplating developments. on the petrol-vehicle side of the industry. It is, therefore, extremely gratifying to us, when we look back to that occasion, to find ourselves not only justified in the course which we then adopted, but to find that our estimates were distinctly below the mark. Prices have been lowered: supplies have been ample.
A perusal of the speech by Sir Marcus, at the annual general meeting of the Shell Co., which took place on Wednesday of last week, arid which is fully reported in " The Times " of the 15th inst., shows how effectively the " Shell group has combated and overcome influences which were at one time calculated to create an effective monopoly in motor spirit. It is made fully evident, by these latest public announcements of Sir Marcus Samuel and his associates, that supplies of high-grade spirit from both the Borneo and Sumatra fields are proving,. not only sufficient for Eastern and European requirements, but sufficient to enable the " Shell " Co. to market extensive supplies in both Canada and the United States. Any developments, by any importers or supplier; whatsoever, which tend in the direction of enlarged sources of supply and cheapenad methods of distribution, and which are destined to maintain effective and reasonable competition in respect of fuel for internal-combustion engines, must receive, as they do at our hands, the highest commendation of all who perceive how closely national and trade interests are interwoven with all improvements in means of internal communication.