Notes from Northern Ireland.
Page 57
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By Ulsterman.
THE makings of an " illigant foight " are coming to a head in Belfast, and it will be "the mercy of God" if they don't "come to a head " in the old skull-cracking sense of that term. It used to be said that a man with a thin skull had no legal right to show his nose at a faction fight. The corporation has "trailed its coat-tails" on the transport green so provocatively that the bus owners have got out their best shillelaghs and are now "neither to bind nor to hold."
The Corporation versus Citizens.
The fact that the bus owners are generally regarded as the champions of the citizens against the citizens' elected representatives adds a peculiarly piquant flavour to the preparations for the coming fight. Provocative incidents are always cropping up. Prom the other side legal provocations are being directed against the buses in the form of prosecutions for "overcrowding," with a complete omission of prosecutions for much more flagrant overcrowding offences on the part of the trams.
In the local Press, too, violently provocative and painfully illogical letters are appearing, penned by frenzied supporters of the obsolescent trains, and calling forth most damaging replies from supporters of the up-to-date mode of transport. Perhaps the most .scathing of these replies are those showing that the alleged profits of the trams during the past three years owe their appearance on the balance-sheet to the fact that "these annual surpluses were made possible only because
charges amounting to the best part of a million sterling, which in the ordinary course should have been debited against revenue, have been debited against capital."
Warlike Preparations.
Now that the corporation has lodged its proposed by-laws at the Home Office, the bus owners have held a council of war and decided upon a plan of campaign. Seeing that the new by-laws are a definite offensive against the very existence of non-municipal transport in Belfast and a serious menace to bus traffic as a means of transport between the Six Counties and the capital, the bus owners have decided to strain every nerve to break the back of those by-laws. A sworn inquiry is to be demanded, in accordance with the recent Act. It is expected that this inquiry -will be held in September. An emergency committee has been appointed, consisting of Mr. W. P. O'Neill (president of the, Ulster Motor Coach Owners Association), Mr. J. McCrea (resident manager of the Belfast Omnibus Co.), Mr. H. M. S. Catherwood (head of the Catherwood firm), Mr. W. Crawford (of the Imperial Bus Co.) and Mr. J. Stringer (of Messrs. Arthur Stringer). Counsel have been engaged, including an eminent member of the English Bar. A monster petition is to be organized. If the by-laws are sanctioned (a most unlikely proceeding), they are to be ignored, and the legal aspect of these antipublic-interest regulations is to be tested in the most acid fashion right up, if need be, to the House of Lords,