THE LONDON PARADE--AND OTHERS
Page 35
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
By "The Inspector.
THE FIFTEENTH of this long and successful series of Parades will, as has been announced in the columns of the Press, take place in London, at Lincoln's Inn Fielde, on Saturday next, and, so far as my information goes, at the time of writing, the entries promise to be rather larger than those of last year. The present settled policy of the London and Headquarters executive is to invite entries only from teams—mixed teams or standardized, as may be possible—but the small owner of one or two machines is not catered for. There are definite reasons for this limitation. Perhaps the council of the Association became somewhat alarmed at the almost overwhelming success of that great fixture which took place just before the commencement of the war, near the Tate Gallery. If subsequent years had revealed corresponding increases in entries, no venue in the streets of the Metropolis would have longer proved anything like adequate, and the cost would have become prohibitive.
The extension of the movement into the provinces is a development of greater moment in all ways. And this year it is likely that there will be a very considerable number of such parades up and down the country. At the same time, the scheme for the examination of .drivers has been elaborated to render it possible for men engaged elsewhere than in the London area to compete. The parades, of course, depend to a considerable extent upon the financial support accorded by the trade, manufacturers and factors of vehicles and accessories and supplies, and this year the calls in this direction will be many.
It might not be considered unreasonable if the sections of industry which I have just named should feel that their share lies in providing the plant and tool& with which other industries conduct their operations, and that it is for the latter to secure the maximum of efficiency by encouraging the men using them to keep them in the best possible condition. On this ground it would be fair to argue that owners of commercial vehicles should dig deepest into their pockets for the support of the prize fund.
It is divulging no secret that previous contributors are a little uneasy about this projected extension of the calls on their purses, and that certain of them have already taken counsel as to the necessity of putting some sort of limit to their capacity in this connection. It is true they all recognize the value of the C.M.U.A.'s work in thisodirection, •but the opinion has been expressed to the writer that the Central Executive should let it be known how far they are prepared to recognize and to encomage individual displays up and down the country. Manufacturers and others would be sorry to have to reduce their individual subscriptions to the prize funds to enable them to support more separate parades, but, in the absence of any considered programme, they may have to do so in self-defence. There will, undoubtedly have to be something approaching an understanding, and it is for the C.M.TI.A. to give a lead in this direction. The C.M.U.A. is, naturally, not anxious to limit expansion in this way for its own sake, but the Association, naturally enough, values the financial support of the industry, and should intimate how far, in its opinion, it considers contributors should be subject to individual and separate " invitations to support."