Planning Now For the Peace
Page 15
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HE sting of the Memo randum which we pub lish elsewhere in this issue is, as is so often the case, in its tail. Or should we, perhaps, refer to it not as a sting, but rather as a well-sugared lure? Possibly it is fairer to state that the most important part of this document comes at the end, thus comparing, on equal terms, with the postscript to a woman's letter.
The plan is intended to serve as a basis for peace-time co-ordination, to act as a jumping-off point for the Road and Rail Central Conference and its Regional Committees when they resume those labours which the war so inconveniently interrupted. As it has already been agreed, in principle, that these bodies were then doing good work for the industry, it follows that it is all to the good that they should be placed in a position to go right ahead with the minimum df delay, so soon as normal conditions show signs of returning.
There can be no doubt in the mind of any farsighted member of the road-transport industry that solutions of many of the problems within the industry, problems which, as to most of them, will be accentuated when peace breaks out, will be facilitated by whole-hearted co-operation and co-ordination ,with the railway companies. It is true that there are still some who fear that, in thus fraternizing with the enemy, the industry is being led like a lamb to the slaughter ; in other words, they do not trust the railways, or believe in their bona fides. It seems to us that, even supposing that there is some foundation for this distrust, there is, even so, greater safety in meeting the representatives of the railways on equal terms at a conference table than in standing off and fighting a guerilla battle with them, for our industry is' in no state to carry on any other kind of hostilities.
Surely, as in the Central Conference and the Regional Committees there are no fewer than 110 picked members of our industry, elected and, we are sure, determined carefully to watch the interests of that industry, there is small chance of their being led astray. On the whole, therefore, we welcome the Memorandum. and especially its "tail."