Last-minute Efforts to -Gain Support for Disposal Bill
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BY OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT .
EFFORTS were being made last night by the Government to avoid ..a display of open hOstility by their, own supporters towards the Bill to end disposal. Mr: J. Boyd-Carpenter, Minister of. Transport, explained its provisions to the 1922 Committee, representing Conservative backbenchers, and tried to. win their support for. it. -
When •he discussed the subject last
week with . the Conservative Party Transport Committee he received strong opposition, and Members threatenedtO vote against the Bill.
,But for this hostility, the text of the Bill would have ' been .made known before now. The triumph shown by the Opposition concerningthe Minister's new policy has exacerbated the feelings of Conservative Members, sonic of whom think that Mr. Boyd-Carpenter is being unduly insensitive. They argue that disposal has not been given a proper chance and that more of the large units should have been offered a second time, possibly in smaller and more attractive lots.
There is an insistent demand that a rigid limit should be placed on the total unladen weight of the vehicles which British Road Services are to be allowed to keep. The number of vehicles to he retained on general haulage should, many Conservatives think, be nearer to the 3,300 shown in the British Transport Commission's books io be running exclusively on long-distance services than to the figure of 7,750 proposed by the Minister.
NO CUTS IN. TYRE REPORT
NO excisions would be made from the Monopolies Commission's report on the tyre trade, the President of the Board of Trade announced on Tuesday. He expected it to be published within the next fortnight.
Tyre manufacturers had asked that certain deletions should be made from the report: