IMPERIAL COMMUNICATIONS.
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The Beginning of a Movement for the Development of the Roads Throughout the Empire, to the Advantage of the British• Vehicle.
AFEW DAYS ago the representatives of the United Kingdom, the Dominions, and India, meeting, wider the chairmanship of Mr. Lloyd George to consider certain questions of Imperial defence, passed a' resolution favouring the formation of a thoroughly representative committee " to consider the question of the practical means avail-. able at the present time for the development of Imperial communications." This committee is to report as soon as possible.
This might mean the beginning of a great movement in favour of the innprovenient of the road system throughout the Empire and the provision of properly co-ordinated services of motor vehicles readily adaptable for military duties in time of emergency. On the other hand, it may happen on this, as on other occasions, that roads and roadItransport will be given very secondary. consideration, if they receive any consideration at all. The road is usually treated as the Cinderella among means of communication. Mechanical road transport has not quite the picturesque attractiveness of aerial transport. It suffers in comparison with the railways by not being, as a rule-, the direct and primary concern of some responsible Minister.
At the same time, it is upon the road rather than upon any other means of transport that we must depend for the development of vast territories, at present only utilized to a very slight extent. Transport by water cannot solve our problem in respect of inland regions. Transport by air has not yet reached the stage at which it can be regarded as a commercial proposition for the cheap carriage of heavy or bulky. produce. The network of railways, however comparatively complete it may become, can never serve, torprovide communications such as can undoubtedly be provided by a road system properly developed and coupled With an adeqate supply of mechanically-propelled vehicles. The production of food is itself one of the important sides of the . problem of Imperial defence. More directly, the motor vehicle running;upon the,road is an essential to military strength, as has been proved times with
out number during the great war. • •
At the Imperial Motor Transport Conference held last autumn a series of resolutions were passed. which certainly ought to be brought to the notice of the official Imperial Committee now constituted. These resolutions were as.follow:— (I) The development and maintenance of main and main connecting roads, so vital to economic transportation in this country and overseas, should receive the fullest support, encouragement, and. supervision from the Governments of the Empire, and, as regards main and main connecting roads, he regarded and dealt with as a national andinot a local matter.
(2) That the proceeds2of taxation of self-propelled vehicles shall;be devoted wholly to roads.
(3) That it is essential that all main and connecting roads be constructed to 'bear mechanical transport. •
(4) That the science of road construction and maintenance is a'matter of Imperial and inter" national interest, and that steps should be taken to encourage the interchange of reports and information both at home and with overseas countries.
The Conference further recoramended.tlae establishment, where not already existing, of Roads Improvement Associations in all parts of the Empire, to be linked up together by some system of affiliation to a central body. At a subsequent meeting of the Conference, a resolution was passed requesting the *Council, which organized the Conference, to communicate with the Governments, road transport organizations, and municipalities of the Empire Overseas, urging the fullest possible co-operation with the British War Department in the preparation of any specifications to be framed in connection with any subsidy scheme, with a view to general action calculated to provide adequate supplies of military motor vehicles of types, so far as possible uniform throughout the Empire."
The principle enunciated:in this last resolution is undoubtedly a sound one. It involves what .wild amount to a considerable degree of standardization of road transport veilicles, with the object of forming workable fleets fromthe military point of view, and of simplifying the maintenance of road vehicles in civilian use throughout the Empire. Returning to the more general aspect of the sub' ject, it is to be hoped that the committee now formed will emphasize the importance and also the commercial soundness of expenditure upon road improve. went. It is only by the development of communications, among which, in our opinion, the road and road transport must take a very prominent place, that we can so increase the productive value of the Empire as to neutralize the terrible expenditure of money that has taken place as a consequence of the war. Similarly, it is only by the use of mechanical power that we can increase the output of the individual member -of the population.