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Bus Employees to Aid 'Flu Research
ENTHUSIASM to assist in medical research has 'been shown by over 200 men and women employed by Belfast Corporation transport department. They have volunteered to be "guinea pigs" for inoculation this winter with influenza vaccine. After this they will be kept under observation for a period of three months and the results passed to the Medical Research Council in London.
The council are asking a large number of important industrial concerns throughout the United Kingdom to co-operate in the experiment. When the influenza danger is over, there will be a careful check A30 to see how many of those treated escaped infection.
An official of the Belfast Corporation health department said it was felt that the workers concerned represented a good cross-section of the community.
Loans for Transport and Roads
I N a recent memorandum, the International Road Federation throws some light upon the work of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, this information being extracted from a report made by the president of the Bank. Since July 1 last year, 24 loans amounting to f107rn. have been made in 13 countries, making a total of 102 loans covering 33 countries and totalling £673m.
It is notable that currencies other than dollars have been increasingly used, in fact to the extent of 30% in the past year. Earlier loans were mainly for purchases in the U.S.A., but during 1953 40% of the money was expended in other countries. They have been used principally to finance basic production or facilities which would aid this, with resulting expansion of private industry and agriculture.
No small part of the money expended is of benefit to makers of commercial vehicles. For example, of the most recent loan to• Australia, amounting to 19m., which was made early this year, over half will be used to improve transport, including the financing of new medium and heavy road vehicles. About a quarter has also been allocated to agriculture, largely towards the cost of tractors and earth-moving equipment.
Other loans help towards the construction or improvement of highways, as happened in the case of Ecuador.
Waiting Time is Money
A CONDUCTRESS employed by Ribble Motor r Services, Ltd., practises a commonplace hobby at an unusual time. Being a self-taught artist, and working a route in the Lake District, she is provided with Jrnany opportunities to practise her hobby—and she takes them.
She can often be seen sketching while her bus is waiting at the terminus and, back home, she finishes them off in water colours and sells them to local shopkeepers, there being a ready sale for them among visitors.