When the RHA fed 150 MPs
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THE FUTURE of haulage was in the balance, Lord Mount Temple, who was Minister of Transport 50 years ago, warned. at a luncheon given by the Road Haulage Association. Any false move in Parliament might severely damage trade and industry, he added.
As there were 150 MPs — more than are often seen in the Palace of Westminster — and two former Ministers of Transport at the luncheon, it would have been difficult for the House of Commons to make much of a move, false or otherwise, on anything.
This titillating tit bit comes from the February 17, 1933, issue of Commercial Motor in which arguments about taxation and other matters still being advanced to this day were adumbrated.
Perhaps inappropriately, as he was operating the slowest motor vehicles on the road, E. C. Marston, a famous Liverpool heavy haulier who was chairman of the two-year-old, 2,000-strong RHA, stressed the importance of speed in transport. Road transport was, he said, delivering tea in a day whereas by rail the job had taken a week.
By that time the national beverage must have been stewed and cold. Who says history does not repeat tiself?