Heavy Motor Transport has Saved the Nation.
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The year 1914, now closing, will be memorable in history for marking the triumph of heavy motor transport. Had there not been large reserves of suitable types of heavy motor vehicles in the hands of commercial-motor owners last August, France might have been stricken beyond recovery, and ulterior consequences which cannot be measured must then have supervened.
The 1914 war triumph of heavy motor transport is primarily ascribable to the success of the London motorbus. We have repeatedly pointed out that the reputation of commercial motoring was on the down grade, in consequence of the troubles and losses which had to be borne in London during the years 19061909 inclusive, and it is now meet that record of the facts should again be made. Had the Motorbus been squeezed out of existence by hostile interests in those critical years, commercial motoring would-not hare recovered from the effects of such a staggering blow for another 10 years. The, electric-tramcar men of the LOU., who spared no effort to harm the motorbus in those days of trial, would then indeed have had an unbearable load on their consciences. They can take no credit to themselves for the success which was achieved in spite of them, but they are, we trust,now thankful that their host-Atty and opposition, prompted by a natural fear of the coming of the motorbus, did not overcome the ,Jonfidence of those who retained their belief in the future of the independent, self-contained vehicle, and above all of the three-tonner.
All who have worked for the cause of commercial motoring through long and trying years, dating backVin some cases, as in that of the writer, to 1895, and their ranks include not a few who are to-day leaders of the industry, find a reward in the triumph which is now acclaimed the world over by reason of the irreplacable employment of commercial motors in the present extensive warfare. Had the tenacity of those parties been appreciably diminished, or their ardour damped, during the black years which marlie said to have ended in 1910, the essential provision of transport for the British Army must have broken down under the
• stress of this year's events. It should never be forgotten that the conduct of London motorbus undertakings, by which notorious losses were transformed to surprising profits between the years 1909 and 1911, with the far-reaching effects which followed in the public esteem and the commercial use of three-ton chassis, has proved to be a turning point upon which the future of this nation has depended.