Traders Welcome White Paper: Workers to Fight It
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CURTNER views on the Govern ment's White Paper on transport were expressed this week by representatives,of operators and workers. Other opinions will be found on the two preceding pages.
The Central Co-ordinating Committee on Transport, representing the Federation of British Industries and other interests, considered the document on Monday, and afterwards said that the Government's intention to reduce central control and return haulage to private ownership was welcomed.
Great exception was, however, taken to the proposed levy on road transport. The commercial transport user could riot, the committee said, be held responsible for any losses which might be incurred in restoring road haulage to private ownership. The use of the levy to make good the loss of railway revenue was indefensible.
In a letter to the "Financial Times," on Tuesday, a correspondent pointed out that many compulsorily acquired hauliers were forced to accept Transport Stock issued at 101, which now stood at 83-84. Those who had retained the stock had lost 17 per gent of their compensation—" a far higher percentage than was at any time paid for goodwill."
In his presidential address to the annual conference of • the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association this week, Mr. Percy Morris, M.P., declared that the Government's proposals to denationalize road haulage, if implemented, would mean that the transport industry would be restored to the chaos which had prevailed before the war. The proposals were "a shocking example of expediency instead of principal, and of a frightening disregard
of public interest." Higher rates and fares had been, and still were, inevitable, he added.
At the annual conference of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, this week, Mr. W. Howarth said that the Government was preparing "an open robbery in which the country is going to sell back, at a loss of I20m., the most profitable sections of the transport industry and it is going to disrupt the industry completely."
Next Sunday, Midland lorry drivers are to attend a meeting in Birmingham to protest against the Government's proposals. The meeting will be addressed by Mr. F. Cousins, national secretary of the road haulage division of the Transport and General Workers' Union. He will seek support for the Union's policy.