Lord Claud Hamilton, the chairman of the Great Eastern Railway
Company, sends to Monday's Daily Mail a short statement of the arguments which be believes to be conclusive against the nationalisation of our railways. These are—(1) the stupendous initial purchase price; (2) the immediate and continued decline in the annual net income under State management; (3) the baneful control of the Treasury over both capital and revenue expenditure, which would, in his opinion, be exerted, "not from the point of view of the public interest, but to suit the varying financial exigencies of the Department, or in accordance with the political party pressure imposed upon him [the Chancellor] from districts where the interests of the Government of the day required strengthen- ing "; (4) the gigantic voting power of the railway servants, which would be subject to the control of the Government, and would gradually create an organised system of political corruption in the United Kingdom.
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