Passing Comments
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SPEAKING recently to Birmingham Rotarians, Mr. H. L. Kenward, Dunlop sales director, said that the freedom to live is as important as security. There have been many suggestions concerning new Ministries which some people think should be set up, but he had not yet heard' of a Ministry for Letting People Alone. Our ultimate ambition might be that, at Some future time, the police force would become redundant. We admire the speaker for his idealism, but we are afraid that no amount of education would render possible the adoption of this last suggestion. In fact, the besteducated thieves and confidence tricksters are the most difficult with whom to deal. Why Not a New Ministry for Letting People Alone ? . . . Is it Legal to Carry CCORDING to a barrister Aeroplanes by Road r-Lwho was making a plea at Vehicles / a county Court, it is technically
illegal for a motor vehicle, registered after 1932, to carry an aeroplane: He contended that a previous authorization to exceed the statutory width of,7 ft. 6 ins, in the case of a vehicle used for such a purpose was not included in the 1940 amendment of the original Act, this privilege, owing to a draughtsman's error, being still confined to vehicles registered before 1932. The judge said that if this were the case, nine-tenths of the transport vehicles on the road would have no statutory right to carry aeroplanes. No doubt the matter can easily be amended.
A QUESTION in Parliament 1--k costs quite a lot cf money to answer, yet a study of Hansard often shows that the most ridiculous and often quite superfluous queries are put, which waste tfft time of the House and that of the Ministries concerned. For example, on May 6, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works was asked whether he was aware that there were 9,000 unwanted cars and vans at the Crystal Palace, what method was to be used to flatten out the bodies, and .What he intended doing with them. Several days before, the Press had been invited to attend at the Crystal Palace to see all the arrangements that were being made to deal with the thousands of scrap vehicles that were there and the others that were coming,
and this was given publicity many journals, together with full information as to the amount of scrap which would thus be rendered available. If the question was put previous to the publication of this information, as seems to have been the case, surely it could have been quashed and the time of the House not wasted. Silly Questions with Which Parliament Has to Deal
Factory A.R.P. Train-P1 effects of bombing on
ing May Be of Vital , buildings varies consider Importance. . . . ably from complete demolition to a few broken windows, and often the factories or houses which remain standing, but are badly shaken or severely blasted, afford the greatest difficulties in connection with rescue work and the prevention of fire. It is, therefore, of vital importance that A.R.P. personnel, particularly in the case of factories, should be thoroughly trained. Recently, at the Inter-factory Competition for the Panel A.R.P. Challenge Cup, held at Oxford, the. Morris Motors' team carried off the award with 398 points out of 400. This was :52 above the runner-up, which, incidentally, was Morris Motors Radiators Branch, also part of the Nuffield Organization, which was competing as a separate team. The competitiOn included raising an extension ladder vertically by four guy ropes, after which team members had to ascend one side and descend the other, each carrying a debris bucket. Another item in which the Morris team was conspicuously successful was tunnelling into a bombed building and rescuing two casualties.