26 MARCH 1927, Page 3

In these circumstances we could wish that Mr. Baldwin's emphasis

on' the Charing Cross scheme had been rather different: Surely the scheme ought not to be presented as though it were dependent upon the reports of a mixed committee Of financiers, • engineers and architects. For it is certain that we cannot do in any case without a new bridge at Charing Cross. Without it the whole future will be jeopardized. The first thing to say, therefore, is that this scheme must be carried out as quickly as possible. The services of the financiers, engineers and -architects will then be required, not, indeed, to say whether the scheMe is possible, but to say exactly how it can be accomplished most economically and most effieiently. Without the Charing Cross bridge the reconstruction of the present Waterloo Bridge will be insufficient and is not at all likely to be accepted by the London County Council. Thus delay means not "nlY jeopardizing the- future, but perhaps also losing the most 'beautiful bridge in London. Capt. C. S. C. Swinton has described in a letter to the Times the Possibilities of a double-decked bridge and a wide through-. ltraffic north and south road. There would be several evels of traffic in this reorganized area, making one of the most wonderful junctions in the world—the tube below UndergroUnd, the river itself, the Embank- ment, the Southern Railway and the overhead road.