Ih mi Letters Railway Closures William B. Stocks,
P. D. Hancock, D. P. Lyall
The Movement and the Group Edward Lucie-Smith Belfast Riots
J. Kelvin Robinson, Rev. K. Ambrose-Clark
The Psephologists I. Michael Davies The Secret Ballot I. C. Jones. J. P. Lissimore Colour and the Election Norman Tiptaft Mob Tactics David Cooper Buddhism Dr. Mostyn Lewis Respect for Wine Kenneth Ames.
Gabor Denes, Michael). Fennessy
Young Socialists Roger Protz The Freudian Schism Dr. Elliott Jaques Afterthought on Cuckolds Mrs. H. P. Finney Lost Weekends A. B. Glass borow Anna Wickham J. G. C. Hepburn
RAILWAY CLOSURES SIR.—In general, I have great faith in the outcome of the Beeching Plan. The greatest mistake made in its application is, I feel, the fairly wide failure to commend it to the public as a scheme designed and intended to make railways better and more vigorously exciting to use. Most people seem to have the idea that it is inspired by a dislike for railways and a desire to reduce them to a minimum in favour of road transport. I prefer to believe that the purpose is to create the virile third force in transport the country needs to prevent road and air making living conditions ghastly with noise and danger, if left to themselves.
But there remains one aspect of the re-shaping plan in which I trust you will allow our British genius for compromise to find a way. I refer to one or two of the very popular lines at holiday times, which traverse country of great natural beauty. These include the condemned lines that enter Whitby from the West Riding and from Scarborough, and those in the Isle of Wight which, at the time of writing, await news of their fate. I believe that their existence acts as a safety-valve for the inevitable destruction of natural attraction that will otherwise follow from excessive road traffic within a decade or two. Surely we have a trusteeship to pass on such lovely areas to our descendants as inviolate as possible and these lines could be valuable agents to this end, given the right publicity. I am well aware that they might lie outside the BR master plan for the future, but, say, an 'amenity grant' or perhaps a readiness to lease such lines to a proper authority at a comparative `peppercorn' rent, might be worth consideration. All said and done, the resident popula- tions in these areas have fought hard to establish their need of the lines. Many years hence people looking at old photographs might think what fools we have been if we allow them to pass into history now.
WILLIAM B. STOCKS 22 Heatherfield Road, Marsh, Huddersfield, Yorks.
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