The financial situation of the railways is too grave to
be ignored and the failure of the wage discussions must force the Government at last to take a definite decision
about the Salter Report. The attitude of the Ministry of Transport towards that document has been one of discreditable shilly-shallying. The Salter Conference, appointed by the Minister of Transport, with four repre- sentatives of the railways and four of the road transport interests and an independent chairman, brought in as long ago as last August a completely unanimous_ report putting road and rail transport on a basis of fair com- petition. Yet down to this day it has been impossible to discover what action the Governnient proposes to take as result of the Salter findings or whether it proposes to take any action at all. As Sir Harold Morris pointed Out in his report on wages, the railways are suffering both from the general depression and from road transport competition, the latter being the more permanent and the more serious. In face of that situation it seems impossible that Mr. Pybus can any longer evade a decision about the Salter proposals.
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