Mr. Szjurnper Paints a Pretty Picture A laVANTAGES - whiCh, he suggested,
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1—Ithe provisional road-rail agreement, resulting from the "square deal " negotiations. holds for the tbaci-haulage business, were discussed by Mr, Gilbert
Sziumper, general manager of the Southem.Railway Co., and president of the Institute of Transport, at adinner held by the Institutes 'Leeds and District Section last week. The agreement, he remarked, showed the extent to which the more stable and more responsible elements of the road-haulage industry were fundamentally in line with the railway companies as to economic reforms in transport.
" The draft agreement that we have arrived at with them," Mr. Szlumper continued, "is such, I think, that it cannot but advantage the road-haulage industry by removing the menace of the free lances, and, more or less, concentrating the business in the hands of companies which are such as to observe the regulations attaching to their licences and, indeed, to have regard to the interests of all that which goes towards making an efficient system."
The railway companies, proceeded Mr. Szlumper, welcomed the agreement as a step towards the real co-ordination of transport. Obviously, a country so small and concentrated as ours required a choice of transport which existed primarily to serve the national interest at a reasonable profit to the operators.
After referring, with satisfaction, to the progressive increase in the Leeds and District Section's membership, which totals 263, Mr. Szlumper empha
sized the national importance of efficiency, in every sort of transport.
. Major F. S. Eastwood, Chairman of the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners, emphasized that the operation of .a country's transport is a science calling for thorough study. The Institute was doing more than any other organization in the country to promote that study. He felt that the Institute could claim a considerable share of the credit for the fact that our railways, road passenger services, and road-haulage services had attained a standard far above that of any other country.
Mr. C. R. Tattarn, general manager of Bradford Corporation Passenger. Transport Department, suggested that the finance committee at the Institute's headquarters should be as liberal as possible in its grants to the local sections, epecially to the graduates' and students' societies. He also suggested that in view of the wide area from which the Leeds and District Section drew its membership, the title should be changed to Yorkshire Section. He believed that a widening of title of some other sections might be wise.
The Lord Mayor of Leeds (Alderman Rowland Winn) spoke of his own long association with road transport, both in his capacity as a vehicle trader and as a member of Leeds Corporation's Transport Committee for the past 18 years. He alluded to the Government's National Service scheme, and stressed the point that those engaged in reserved occupations are not., debarred from volunteering in certain capacities,