Improved transport is in the forefront of all Reconstruction programmes,
and this reform was anticipated, in one respect, by the installation of a train ferry between Riohborough—on the Stour, near Sandwich—and Calais or Dunkirk, and between South- ampton and Dieppe, about eight months ago. The essential virtue of a train ferry in war time is that one can load a gun or a wagon of ammunition in Glasgow, and deliver it at railhead in France, without intermediate handling by men or machinery. Identical railway gauges are essential : there is no other real difficulty. In eight months those two ferries carried nearly 18,000 ten-ton wagons across Channel, and nearly 230,000 tons of gross dead-weight. They are ships of 363 ft. by 61 ft., with a 10 ft. draught and a speed of twelve knots. When time was precious they bore an honourable share in stalling off the German thrust in the anxious days of last March; no doubt they are doing scarcely less valuable service in the quick handling of supplies for the army of occupation.
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