Easter Impressions : the Depleted Ranks of Holiday-makers.
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Our own observations, and intimations from correspondents in different parts of the country, show that Eastertide has this year been marked by unique differences in comparison with those of normal times. The weather has been variable, but not altogether unenjoyable, despite the high wind and the frequent showers on several days. Those of us who have been able to take a short rest from ordinary and extraordinary duties have done so in subdued fashion. An air of detachment. has seemed to pervade everything. Everybody's thoughts, the while apparently concentrated upon the affairs of the moment, cannot help but be preoccupied with the affairs of the Nation's life which are taking place across the Channel, and in the farther region of the Dardanelles.
The opening of the passenger-traffic season, so far as seaside and country areas are concerned, is usually held to be marked by the Easter holidays. We fear that there is little to record of an encouraging or prophetic nature. from the occurrences of the past seven days, unless it be that the evident absence of extensions and revivals of not a few services is ominous. We -find, for example, that. the Great Western and other railway companies disclose no signs of new developments in their motorbus departments; they have, in point of fact, been obliged to adopt curtailments, whilst other services remain in force to an extent which can be classed as of reduced winter frequency. A few owners of chars-h-banes and motorbu.ses, but .indeed very few, remain the happy possessors of coachwork and its supporting mechanism intact. Larger numbers still have to look dolefully at the bodies deprived of their all-essential chassis. Eastertide, we fear, notwithstanding brave efforts to make a show to the contrary, has merely served to enforce the direct participation of passenger-vehicle users in that period of financial stress which is the corollary of an unprecedented war on the scale at which it is now being waged.
We hope. that some of our readers have been able to act effectively upon the advice which we gave in our issue of the 18th February last. We then, whilst renewing our earlier tribute, to the loyalty of users to their old sources of supply, pointed out that their own interests were in many cases such that they might best be served, during the inevitable period of interregnum at least., by their having re course as char-h-bancs and passenger-vehicle owners to chassis of American make, or alternatively to special steam-propelled chassis—such as the Clarkson and the Sheppee. We then wrote, 'inter !` We regard it as a choice of the lesser evil, that char-b-banes owners should purchase good American-built chassis, of which they can get early delivery, rather than that they should remain throughout the coming season without means of earning a livelihood. We do not reflect, upon American-built chassis, in writing of them in the foregoing terms, because their purchase and use, compared with the purchase and use of approved British-made chassis, does involve relative loss. The rates which are obtainable for the conveyance of passengers and pleasure parties are, however, so high that the small losses which we have in mind, arising from the higher first cost of the Americanbuilt vehicles and their higher operating costs, can be made good many times over." At a later date (the 18th ult.), when dealing with the subject of fresh Government action in respect of engineering works, we stated that : " The U.S.A. makers, if they can deliver, will now have the chance of their lives doubled, and in this prophecy we embrace the battery vehicle. Higher first and working costs must be accepted in days of stress, in those many cases where the increases, expressed in pence per vehicle-mile, are insignificant compared with alternative losses of revenue." Many of the American makers, however, still find themselves unable to deliver, owing to the continued absorption of their outputs by purchases on the part of the British, Belgian, French, Russian and other Governments. An interesting side light on the tense situation which exists is provided by the following case, which recently came under our notice. It concerns a purchaser of a British make of lorry who, by reason of the fact that he found himself handicapped through non-delivery of the vehicle in carrying out certain contracts for the War Department, was offered by that Department the delivery at cost of an American-built machine. This releasing of a limited number of American-built chassis by .the War Department may hereafter call for further -comment at our hands, but we do not think that any considerable relief is likely to accrue for the transport world at large from that means. The position of the user of vehicles nowadays is ci