But what indeed can be said of a report by a group of public men appointed to deal with one of the gravest and most urgent problems of the time-what could be said of a report by anybody or any individual or any child or any half-wit- with the following passage: "The reduction in severity (in car smashes) where the speed limit is imposed is due not to the speed limit but to the fact that high *This figure has been obtained apparently by adding up the percentages for drivers in the 1937 Ministry Report (See p. 56). In their enthusiastic compilers of the Select Committee's Report have debited the drivers with .06% for horse drawn vehicles, the real total being 7.2% (5.1% private drivers).
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speeds cannot be reached in congested traffic. This should not be adduced as an argument for the reimposition of a universal speed limit" (p. 1 11). It is pure Bedlam. In fact, the Select Committees' Report is no more than a crude endorsement of the motor interests' demands for more roads and road "improvements" at the public expense and for fewer restrictions on speed and the drivers, with, added, a half-hearted and only partly interested recommendation of "education." The demand for more roads and road "improvements " at the public expense- the sole supporting evidence is the Report (described above) of Mr. G. T. Bennett, the County Surveyor of Oxfordshire- is the first topic mentioned (p. 2); the figures of motor taxation as compared with, the Ministry of Transport expenditure on roads are given before the casualty lists (p. 4); and 28 out of the 55 pages of the main part of the Report, and (as indicated) 115 out of its 238 recommendations, besides numerous incidental references, are devoted to the subject.* (So anxious indeed, were the Select Committee to prove their case that they even questioned the good faith of the Ministry: they doubted, they said, "whether the Ministry believed in the theory advanced on their behalf" p. 35). In short, as has been seen, in a number of its recommendations, it goes beyond even the demands of the motor propagandists. It is more motorist than the motor interests. It outHerods Herod. When the Select Committee's Report appeared it was, naturally enough, acclaimed immediately by the motor correspondents as "The Motorists' Charter," and, ever since, in such terms as "wise document," "statesmanlike report," "essential contribution to road safety" etc. etc. the motor propagandists have assiduously kept its existence before the public attention in the hope of securing the adoption of its provisions. It is still a little difficult to account for the Report: to understand how any body of public men could put their names to it; or how it could come to be issued and accepted as an official document. Among all the thousands of Reports issued by British Government Committees it must surely be unique, i.e. apart froin the Interim Report that is based on it. As to the members *It is merely a minor complication, or, rather, another example of the disingenuousness of the Report, that it also declares that "the majority of accidents are the result of human error in conduct or in judgment." (p. 35).
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of the Committee, or at least the majority, at least one thing is clear, And that is, that they entertained an extraordinary contempt for public opinion, perhaps a conviction that with regard to road safety it did not exist. Indeed, in view of its character, we may reasonably assume that they expected the Report to be accepted not merely without criticism but without examination, even perhaps without it's being read, and that, no doubt, is what has generally happened. The Cormittee concluded their Report with the hope that it would not "find a resting-place in the pigeon-holes of Whitehall." That at least is a hope that can be shared. Even in a pigeon-hole harm might come from this absurd and mischievous document. The Committee members were: Lord Alness (Chairman), Lord Rushcliffe, Lord Addison, Lord Reading, Lord Iddesleigh, Lord Birkenhead and Lord Brocket. Curiously, the names of the Committee members do not appear in the Report, but it is hardly worth speculation whether