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The Wasteful Cippenham Scheme.

20th March 1919, Page 1
20th March 1919
Page 1
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Page 1, 20th March 1919 — The Wasteful Cippenham Scheme.
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Keywords : Taxicab

RENEWED ATTENTION has recently been. drawn to the Slough depot scheme, both in the House of Commons and in the general Press. The scheme has been more or less modified so as to provide for the employment of , civilian instead of military labour, but steady work continues upon the construction of workshops and the general completion of a gigantic establishment. Over four thousand workmen are employed, and it is reported that huge purchases of machine tools are being made, the amounts expended upon this equipment not being regarded as forming a part of the original estimate for the depot. D. seems elr that, unless something very drastic is done, the Mal expenditure will exceed two million pounds. Meanwhile, opinion is consolidating to the effect that the work ought. to he stopped altogether and the losses cut.

The authorities are stated to be very reticent on the subject of what they are going to do with the depot when they have got it. Probably, the fact of the matter is that they do not know, but, having once got the idea of constructing the depot into their heads, they are deterinined to see it through at all costs to the public. We are now told that it is an ideal site for a permanentaark for motor transport. Almost when the Wcheme was first mooted, we pointed out that all that was required was a temporary organiza'lion capable of dealing with the demand for repairing facilities while the wax lasted, so far as those facilities could not be organized with the assistance of the manufacturing industry. We pointed out that directly the war finished there would come into the market a number of large Government factories easily adaptable for repair work on motor vehicles. , There are, in fact, about 14 such factories at the present moment in the_ market, and it is absolutely absurd that the Government should be engaged on constructional .work • and endeavouring to sell very similar complete premises at the same time. There .is reason to believe that the present Secretary of State for War is not quite happy over the whole business and, if he does not lack initiative, there is still some hope that a certain amount of totally unnecessary expenditure may be prevented.

The Channel Tunnel.

IT SEEMS to be the usual thing nowadays for the public to be informed of the Government's decisions on matters of first-class importance by some caimal comment of a Minister speaking in the country, or by a brie f and rather off-hand reply to a question put in the House of Commons. • Thus, we find Mr. Bottoniley enquiring whether, in order to find employment for discharged soldiers, the French Government would be approached with a view, to beginning the construction of the Channel Tunnel, and Mr. Bonar Law replying that he was in communication with the Prime Minister in Paris on this subject. Here the matter was left for the moment. We can only judge that the British Government is now convinced that the construction of the Channel Tunnel is a matter of urgency. We are left. wondering whether the Tunnel is to be constructed because its real utility is fully recognized, or whether it is merely regarded as a convenient bit of work to put in hand with a view to eliminating unemployment. So far as we are aware, there has as yet been. no proper open discussion on the important question of whethier the tunnel should provide means of communication by road as well as by railway. The journey by road would, at the best, not be a particularly, pleasant one, but a road tunnel would be undoubtedly advantageous as affording a means by which goods could be transported exactly from any point in this country to any point on the Continent, without transhipment and without any delay en route. Is it too late for the organizations connected with the use of motor vehicles of all kinds to forinulate their own policji in this matter and to press that policy upon the Government ? If the tunnel is not to provide direct road communication, there ought certainly to be special arrangements made by means of which motor vehi'Aes can he taken across bodily without the removal of their loads.

The Responsibility for Fuel Economy.

BOUT THE YEAR 1915 or early in 1916, when a proposal for carburetter devices that would: effect a large saving in fuel was put to Col. H. C. L. Hoiden -(now General Sir Capel Holden), he made the wise remark that there was an abundance of petrol available for Army purposes and, th'erefore, that the needs of the case were not such as would justify the expenditure of titnelabour and money on perfecting and applying such devices. We are astonished, however, to know that an official in the Mechanical Transport Section of the R.A.S.C., whose opinion was recently sought on the question of the need for saving fuel, remarked that there was no need for the Army to economize in petrol as there is plenty ofit. He was reminded that close students of the oil situation in the world were convinced that

there is a growing shortage of petroleum fuels and that every-effort must be made, not only to economize, but to secure apparatus which would enable us to use in internal-combustion engines the heavier grades of fuel.

His only reply was that he did not believe that this peed existed, and the people who advanced such arguments did not know what they were talking about 1 It is this very attitude on the part of officials which has led to the scandals of the National Shipyard at Chepstow and the Motor Transport Depot at Cippenharn. It is this very attitude which demonstrates to all thinking men that the only way in which to secure efficiency and economy in business is to place the control of industry in the hands of people who, if they make a failure of it, themselves suffer through the medium of their own pockets ; in ether words, leaving business to private enterprise instead of to State-paid officials.

There is an undoubted shortage of the lighter fractions of oil. That must be apparent to any man who has been compelled in recent years gradually to change from spirit in the region of .700 sp.gr. to anything in the region of .750 sp. gr. ; and we have to get to work seriously not only to conserve our present supplies but to develop all new sources. We can conserve our present supplies by making fuller use of the heavier grades, using suitable apparatus for the purpose. The Mechanical Transport Section of the R.A.S.C. must play its part ; the managers of big fleets of commercial vehicles and service vehicles must continuously be at Work towards the same end ; motor designees must do far more than they have done in this respect. When one considers the demands that will be made by commercial aircraft, one wonders whence all the additional spirit required is to come.

The London General Omnibus Co., even on its restricted services, must use at least 12 million gallons of spirit per annum, and when the services reach their normal level the consumption of this one fleet alone must be 20 million gallons a year. We know that the engineer's department of the company has done a lot in. the way of saving fuel, and has tried hundreds of devices, but we ask have they done enough ? In a number of big fleets we say that practically nothing has been done. .

• Now is the time when every mind that can be -brought to bear on this problem should be at work attempting to solve it. The importance (:)f the situation is realized in America, but it is not realized here and, if the growth of moter transport is not to be impeded, praetiead efforts must now be put forward to effect economy and better employment of the fuels

at our disposal. ,

Light Cabs for London.

WE WERE very interested to observe that Sir R. Park Goff, last week, in the House of Commons, asked the Home Secretary questions concerning the present shortage of taxicabs, whilst there was an interesting note in one of the London evening paperS, towards the end of the week, concerning specifications for the substitution of newer types of light road runabouts for the older taxicabs. A recent note in our " One Hears" column gave a slight hint in the same direction, although, to our knowledge the matter is known so far to very few people. We think now that there need be no further attempt at secrecy. The proposal is for the licensing of the Ford chassis, suitably altered to comply with the police requirements for cab work in London, although those requirements may-, owing. to the new circumstances, require to be modified in some respects. The Home Secretary, to whom, by the way, considerable credit for broadmindedness and enterprise in this /*atter is due, said in. the House that the question of the licensing of types of cabs other than those now employed, after suitable alteration, was under consideration.

Considering the great need for cabs in London—we think we are not going too far when we say that an extra 5,000 cabs will scarcely meet the lase needs— we hope that this subject will be approsed from the point of view of the convenience of the public. Those needs could probably be met by the licensing of a certain number of light vehicles, each accommodating two passengers, with a small amount of luggage space. We are satisfied that it will not be long before the British manufacturers will be able to produce vehicles to fake the place of the imported articles when the latter have served their purpose and require to be replaced.


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