The report of the Ministry of Transport inspecting officer on
the fatal fire which took place in an express train near Beattock in Dumfriesshire last June raises serious problems for British Railways, for it involves a balance between expenditure and safety. That question is not settled by declaring dogmatically that where human life is involved no expense can be spared. Within limits that is true, but there are limits nevertheless—as where it is a case of an infinitesimal risk and an inordinate expen- diture. The trouble is that no one can say, and the inquiry has not revealed, how the accident in question was caused, for the explanation that "some time before the train reached Carlisle a lighted match or cigarette was thrown on the floor of compartment six" seems to rest on assumption or deduction (otherwise why match or cigarette ?), not on observation. With Col. Walker's recommendations on improved safety measures in sleeping-cars, whether first-class or third, anyone who has ever travelled in a sleeper will warmly concur. But the coach involved in the Beattock Summit fire was not a sleeper.
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