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C...C. (Communications) 3rd Minutes.
COLONIAL CONOMIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
COMMUNICATIONS SUB-COMMITTEE.
Minutes of the 3rd meeting held at 10.45 a.m. on Tuesday, 13th February, in Room 5 at the Colonial Office, Dover Huse, Whitehall, 3.0.1.
Present:
Captain Peter (Chairman)
Lord Hailey
Mr. D.F. Brown
Mr. H.B. Cohen Ministry of War Transport
General Hone
Colonel 3anders)
Mr. Gent
Mr. Caine
Mr. Bigg
Mr. Mayle
} C.A.(M.P.U.)
Mr. Sweeney (Acting Secretary)
Miss Orde-Browne.
Apologies for absence were received from Mr. Haleworth,
Mr. McLean and Sir Harold Howitt.
1. The Minutes of the 2nd meeting were confirmed.
2+
Matters arising out of the first Report of the Agenda 3ub-Committee.
(a)
Suggestion that the Sub-Committee should draw up a list of subjects it wishes to discuss:
Lord Hailey said that there was one subject which was frequently referred to in connection with communications, namely the comparative advantages in modern conditions of rail and road development. It would be useful to make a study of this question: verious people had worked out the cost per ton per mile under the two alternative systems, but of course there were many other factors to be taken into account. Mr. Spiller had prepared an informative paper on Railway Development for another Committee. This paper also dealt with the competition between road and rail systems. It might be useful to let the Sub-Committee see a copy of the paper.
The road versus rail question would arise in connection with development schemes: there were always some people who wanted railways and others who thought that roads would serve all purposes. There was a subsidiary question of the extent to which road traffic should be controlled in the interests of the railways, and what principles should be followed there: whether the railway should be regarded as a commercial proposition that must bear its own capital charges or whether it should be operated as a public utility service in such a way that road traffic need not be restricted because the railway id not pay.
Mr. Bigg said that the study of this question was one of the tasks with which his department was charged. A memorandum
on