BRITISH CANALS
SIR,—By the paragraph in his " Country Life " column of September 13th, Sir William Beach Thomas must have given to many of your readers the impression of a neglected inland waterway system, " destroyed by the railways," but which is apparently to be revived through the efforts of a body calling itself the "Inland Waterways Association." There are to-day in Great Britain some 2,000 miles of canals and navigable rivers in active use for the carriage of goods, and the average yearly tonnage carried on the principal canals and inland navigations during the war years was 11.200,00o. Not a bad effort for a dead industry! The Canal Joint Committee, a body comprising representatives of the Canal Association and the National Association of Inland Waterway Carriers, published in 1945 a statement on "Post-War Policy for the Inland Waterways," which I venture to suggest is likely to contribute more to the development of inland water transport than may be expected to result from the activities of the association to which Sir William Beach Thomas referred.—
Secretary. The Canal Association, 9, Victoria Street, S.W.r.
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