Mr. A. R. ATKEY, M.P., AND RAILWAY INTERESTS IN ROAD TRANSPORT.
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OPPOSMON to railway companies' projected transport schemes is increasing in Midland as in other large industrial centres. The Nottinghi.in Chamber of. Commerce, which has been for Dome tune conducting its own Tr otor haulage department, with con-spicuous advantage to local manufacturers, recently formulated substantial reasons against any statutory authority being accorded to the companies to organize road transport services without contact with their rail systems.
The Notts. and Derbyshire Traders' Association, which is one of the oldest organizations in the Midlands, has supported the Chamber's action by forwarding to the Ministry of Transport and local Members of Parliament copies of a resolution which it has passed, viewing with apprehension the companies' proposals as being calculated to prove inimical to public interests. Mr. A. R. Atkey, M.P. for Central Nottingham, has, in reply to the Association's communication, intimated his strong conviction that it will be little short of disastrous to the trade and commerce of the country if these powers are granted.
"History," he observes, "records the effect on water transport by railway interests, and these sinister results would undoubtedly follow if railways were permitted to enter into competition with our latest industrial development. There is neither rhyme, reason, nor necessity for railway interests to interfere to the detriment end probable destruction of private enterprise, which has already invested an immense amount of capital in the valuable sopplementary service of
road transport. . . . I view with the greatest apprehension the attempt on the part of the railways to secure the wider powers of road transport. Nor does my opposition arise from any unfriendliness to railway prosperity Or development. Efficient and economical raiLways are just as important and essential to our economic life as other forms of transport, but this is, above all, a case where 'the cobbler should stick to his last.' " Lord Henry 13.entincit, M.P. for South Nottingham, has also indicated his readiness to afford the association the fullest support in regard to the matter, whilst Sir J. D. Rees, Parliamentary representative of the Eastern Division of the city, has expressed the view that it seems unlikely that such a far-reaching measure as the resolution suggests can be introduced and carried through. Certainly, he adds, nothing can be dons without the fullest inquiry.
The view held by the Association is one that is being echoed by the whole trading community.