Sir Eric Geddes, in moving the second reading of the
Ministry of Ways and Communications Bill on Monday, gave an elaborate and gravely worded review of what he described as the chaotic condition of transportation in this country. He emphasized first its importance, and the fact that social reform must make increasingly heavy demands upon it. Then we must face another fact, that among transport undertakings the municipal tramwaya alone were prosperous ; they earned about 7 per cent. on their capital. Railways before the war earned rather over 4 per cent. ; now they were run at a loss of 3 to 4 per cent. Roads cost the country £20,000,000 a year. Generally speaking, transport was financially semi-paralysed. Development had been retarded before the war, and to.day transport was ill- equipped' for the heavy strain upon it. The railways, which were losing £100,000,000 a year, must be put back on a paying basis, and the Government must devise a policy to that end. Unified control would be the kernel of that policy ; competi- tion moat cease ; local and private interests must give way. This was not a Railway Bill, it was a Transportation Bill. There must be one authority. Sir Douglas Haig had found that essential in France.
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