from the railway point of view. While the development of motor transport in the Colonies was a matter of very great importance for their future, it should be remembered that railways must always remain the backbone of the system of transportation in view of the very heavy loads they were able to carry. What the road motor was taking from them was the most remunerative part of the traffic, parcels and the lighter classes of goods. It should also be borne in mind that Colonial Governments had very heavy commitments in their railways, since these represented an investment of some eighty million pounds or more in the aggregate. It was therefore difficult to see how they could afford to let their railways become unremunerative. In order to prevent such a misfortune without unduly crippling road motor development, it was imperative that roads should be planned wherever possible in such a way as to co-operate and feed, rather than compete with, the railways. The Conference were in agreement with these conclusions, and discussed the question of road competition with railways as it appeared in practice in various Dependencies. The suggestion was made that rail motor coaches might be found to assist the railways in certain cases to retain traffic in the face of road competition. It appeared that in Ceylon such a service was meeting with considerable success. The Conference also considered the possibility of requiring from road vehicles a larger contribution toward the cost of road upkeep and of imposing road tolls on vehicles directly competing with sections of the railway. It was recognized that adequate preliminary survey work was the essence of an intelligent system of internal communications in any territory, and the suggestion was made that a special road construction branch of the Administration should be set up wherever an extensive road system was contemplated. The Conference were agreed that, as the main object of any Government in such matters must be to reduce the costs of transport, it was necessary, in considering remedies for the competition between road and railway systems, to keep a very careful check on all railway rates and the charges, taxes, etc., imposed on road transport with a view to their constant adjustment. It was stated that in Nigeria experience had shewn that, in order to recover lost traffic from a competing road system, railway rates had to be reduced not only to the same level as road transport rates, but even considerably lower. This had also been the case in Trinidad, where the success of road services was attributed to the door-to-door facilities offered by them. XVII. MECHANICAL TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE COLONIES. The Conference devoted some time to considering problems of mechanical transport development in the Colonies and Protectorates, etc., and at one of their meetings they had the benefit of the expert advice of representatives of the War Office, the Ministry of Transport, the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation, the Crown Agents for the Colonies, and of BrigadierGeneral F. D. Hammond.* As regards the British Tropical African Dependencies, Mr. Brackenbury, of the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation, explained that the main problem confronting local Administrations was the provision of a system of transport supplementary to those at present in use, seeing that roads could not be macadamized in Tropical Africa and that wheeled vehicles could never be made to carry a very great weight. The chief requirement was a main feeder for a main railway; to make a branch railway an economic proposition a volume of traffic was necessary which a sparsely populated country could not produce; if sufficient traffic were not forthcoming, the cost per ton mile rendered a railway unremunerative. A satisfactory alternative system might be found in the road train mounted on some form of caterpillar track and propelled by some form of engine using fuel other than petrol. For fuel, charcoal might be used, since it formed an excellent material from which a suitable gas might be made. Many stationary engines were in use run on producer gas, but as a fuel for automobile engines it had not been at all generally employed. After describing the lines on which a road train with a carrying capacity of approximately 100 tons could be tested in a Tropical African territory as a feeder to the railway, Mr. Brackenbury explained that such a train would need a European engineer in charge, with another European as assistant, together with six or seven natives. With charcoal as fuel, he estimated the running cost of the train as £125 for a distance of 800 miles for a month. The capital cost of the train might be as much as £5,000 or £6,000, though this would be reduced as production became more extended and standardised. The Conference were informed of the technical points of importance and the possibilities in regard to tracks for such vehicles, and of the pressure experiments which had been carried out with tyred vehicles and the maximum economical size of tyres. It was mentioned that in British Honduras a form of road train was used to a considerable extent for hauling mahogany. This took the form of a whole-track as opposed to a half-track petrol locomotive hauling up to three, very occasionally four, 8-wheeled wagons; while the tractor did no harm * Memoranda on this subject are printed as Appendix XIII. (a) and (b) in Cmd. 2884. to the road, the wagons did a great deal of harm. The load was between five and ten tons of timber per wagon, and the trains could be operated only during the dry season of the year. It was explained to the Conference that there might be some difficulty in securing the immediate development of this form of transport by the motor trade in England as their capacity was already fully taxed in producing the types required for their existing markets, but it was hoped that this matter would be kept in view. Mr. Brackenbury's suggestion was that a Committee should be set up to undertake experiments and designs on a scale more extensive than was possible for such a body as the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation, which had been prominent hitherto in carrying out tests of cross-country types of vehicles and tractors. The Conference considered this suggestion, and it was generally felt that, if these experiments were to be supported by the Colonial Governments, the proposed Committee should be in a position to carry out tests simultaneously in several different Colonies and with several different types of machines. It was realized that the independent and spasmodic investigations which had been carried on in recent times by various authorities and in various countries required co-ordination if effective progress was to be made with the problem. The problem, simply stated, was to find a satisfactory transport and haulage system, the cost of which would work out at some point between the 1s. 6d. a ton-mile of the motor and the 2d. a ton-mile of the railway. The Conference also discussed the question of the bridging necessary to carry the weights of such vehicles or road trains, and the desirability of adequate surveys of possible routes for such auxiliary forms of transport in the Colonies. Colonel Peck, who represented the War Office at the meeting, explained the nature of the problem as it affected the Army. From that point of view, it was a matter of first importance that the cross-country type of motor vehicles should be commercialised, and he explained the system of subsidies which the War Department had developed in order to assist this object. He hoped that any Committee which might be set up on behalf of the Colonies would carefully examine the possibilities of aircooled engines, which the War Department had found to be perfectly efficient and to have a special value for use in tropical territories. After describing the nature of the experiments which the War Department had for some time been conducting and the results which they had obtained, Colonel Peck offered to the proposed Colonial Committee every facility for using both the records and the Farnborough grounds of the War Department for their experiments, provided that no extra expense was incurred by the War Office. The Conference thereupon set up a small Committee, under the Chairmanship of Sir Gordon Guggisberg, with the following terms of reference : "To frame and submit to the Conference a scheme for the establishment and financing of a Committee to carry further the necessary investigations into, and improvement of, new forms of mechanical transport, with a view to their adaptation to the requirements of undeveloped tropical territories." In their Report* the Committee submitted the following recommendations to the Conference : 1. That a Council entitled "The Council for Mechanical Transport in the Colonies" be appointed to control the necessary investigations into, and improvements of, new forms of mechanical transport with a view to their adaptation to the requirements of undeveloped tropical territories. 2. That the Council should consist of the following members : A Chairman to be nominated by the Secretary of State. A representative of the Crown Agents. A representative of the War Office. Mr. G. H. Baillie. Brig.-General F. D. Hammond. And that the Empire Marketing Board, the Sudan Government Railways, and the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation should each be invited to nominate a representative to the Council. 3. That the Council should have power to co-opt such other members as may be advisable, due regard being paid to the desirability of securing the co-operation of such bodies as the Institutions of Civil, Mechanical, and Automobile Engineers. 4. That a Secretary to the Council should be appointed by the Secretary of State. 5. That the Council should be responsible to the Secretary of State for all funds placed at its disposal. 6. That the actual work of investigation and experiment should be carried out by an Executive Committee composed of experts, who should be appointed by and responsible to the Council. 7. That the Executive Committee should be small and composed of the most suitable and experienced persons available, and that any payments found necessary to secure their services should be regarded as a proper charge on the funds at the Council's disposal. 8. That the investigations and experimental work of ascertaining the most suitable forms of mechanical transport should be undertaken on a considerable scale, both at home and abroad, with a view to results being obtained as early as possible. See Appendix XIII. (c) in Cmd. 2884. 9. That an initial sum of £50,000 and thereafter an annual sum of £20,000 should be placed at the disposal of the Council, this annual sum to be re-considered from time to time as may be necessary in the light of future developments. 10. That the Institutions of Civil, Mechanical, and Automobile Engineers, the Empire Cotton Growing Corporation, the Sudan Government Railways, and any commercial or manufacturing concerns interested, should be invited to contribute towards the funds required for the work; and that the Empire Marketing Board should also be invited to make a grant, preferably of a lump sum, towards the initial funds needed, and that the balance of the money required should be contributed in proportion to their revenues by those Dependencies likely to benefit from the operations of the Council. 11. That experiments should not be confined to one Colony or area; and that the Colonial Governments contributing to the funds should be prepared to co-operate with the Executive Committee in the work of conducting the local trials necessary to ascertain the suitability of the types of vehicle under experiment in relation to local conditions of road construction and transport. But that, while the actual working of the vehicles and the local carrying out of the experiments should be in the hands of the Executive Committee, their representatives in the Colonies should, for purposes of local administration, be placed under the Government concerned. 12. That the Council should from time to time disseminate to the different Colonial Governments concerned full information as to the progress which is being made in the various. experiments undertaken both by the Council and by foreign Governments. The Conference approved in principle the Committee's proposals, but considered that the proposed Council should include a representative of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and a second representative of the War Office. They recommended also that the Report should be referred to the Empire Marketing Board with a request that the Board should take up in fuller detail the question of financial assistance towards the proposed experiments, and should explore the various sources from which contributions might be forthcoming, whether from Dominion or Colonial Governments or from private enterprise. It was recognised that the composition of the Council would be liable to modification as a result of the Board's investigations in the matter of contributing sources. On Saturday, the 21st May, at the invitation of the Secretary of State for War, many Members of the Conference visited Farnborough in order to see the various types of cross-country mechanical vehicles and tractors with which the military authorities are experimenting. |