We are glad to learn from the Times that the
Ministry of Transport is to shed some at least of its many highly paid officials. The Civil Engineering and Development Departments, which cost between them nearly £.30,000 in salaries, " without war bonuses," are to be reduced. The seven " Area Commissioners," who are paid £800 a year each, are to be dispensed with. The head of the Secretarial Department, it is said, is to resume his former duthis with the North-Eastern Railway Company. It would be well if the other railway officials now drawing salaries from the 'State could follow his example, for the railways need all the skill and experience available, and their best men ought not to be wasted on departmental duties in a superfluous Ministry. If it is absolutely necessary to provide Ministerial office for Sir Eric Geddes, he might be made a Minister without Portfolio. All the necessary administrative work in connexion with the railways and canals could be done, as before, by a small branch of the Board of Trade.
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