Out and Home.—By the Extractor.
Page 10
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A disappointing intimation was made to me by a prominent Army official, whom I know very well, and who is engaged mostly in connection with motor transport. Steam vehicles, he tells me, are no longer being ordered for war purposes. The exhaust steam betrays their presence to the enemy. The Army authorities are so much convinced of this that they are returning those which have been sent out. There will be a chance, under these circumstances, of securing some deliveries at home, unless the W.D. has for its own reasons decided to use all the steamers at home.
Age has not withered, nor custom staled, the infinite variety of modes of demanding and bestowing " hacksheesh." That word is, of course, of Eastern origin, but no English word, that I know, expresses the meaning so precisely—the practice of paying over ;ratuities when orders are diverted in a particular direction. Now that Acts of Parliament have decreed that the givers of commissions and presents in this country are liable to be severely punished, we will assume that the custom has been exterminated here, but we are now greatly engaged in making ammunition and other things for foreign Governments, and the word reaches me that the necessary distribution of " baeksheesh," if one would do business, is positively wicked. I gather that you may quote, and you may strive, you may use every art to obtain the busi., ness, but something incomprehensible blocks the way. Perhaps it dawns on you. the chances are it may not, there is one thing needful to get "a move on" ; if you acquiesce, then things will come your way ; it will easily be grasped that these methods of business are so foreign to British motor manufacturers that it is extremely hateful.
That quaintly-named and efficient mileage recorder • the " What-was-when " is of dire necessity now only recording miles in the Land of Kultur, and such other limited territory as remains friendly to the "Baby Killers." The words now probably will acquire some new significance, may even have an Imperial flavour e28 " What an ass I Was When I declared war." However, Mr. A. Aldersey Taylor, who joined S. S. Nevill, Ltd., principally to push that accessory, has for the present resigned his directorship with the Holloway firm, and has resumed business in second-hand vehicles under the ancient title Industrial Motors Exchange at 29a, Charing Cross Road, London, W.C. I gather that his business relations with Mr. Nevill are not entirely broken, and the arrangement is a perfectly friendly one. Probably, although he does not say so, Mr. Taylor hopes that national, like political memories may be short, and that at no very distant date, he may join Nevill 's again on the old footing and with the same wares.
The export trade, at the moment, is receiving rather a check ; I gather from a large shipper that in normal times the banks assist the shippers materially ; as soon as the bills of lading are deposited with them proportionate advances are made, but since the outbreak of the war, the bankers have declined positively to take the risks. This means that the shippers will have to stand out of large sums of money for five to six months, thus rendering trading on a, large scale almost impossible. Probably now that the sea highway is becoming freed, a resumption of the former custom will come in force.
In times like the present, when body space on any commercial chassis is of such importance, it is interesting to know that the Brasier Co., who alwayi made a special feature of lorries which have the Ecart of the driver immediately over the engine, have supplied the French War Office with very large fleets of lorries of this type. .Their London Manager, at present on Military service, reports that he has also seen several Brasier lorries in the British convoys.
In the early days of the fighting in Belgium, several Brasier touring cars were hastily equipped and used as ambulances, and private enterprise has been instrumental in giving several of this make to British regiments for the same purpose.