UNDERGROUND MOTOR ROADS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 147, 17 March 1920, Page 7

UNDERGROUND MOTOR ROADS

LONDON'S NEED. I Lord Aslifield. of Southwell,, bettof ; known as Sir Albert Stanley, sneaking as 1 a truest of the American Luncheon Club at the Suvov Hotel, London. said that in London there were oight millions of IjooT)le reaniriwr transportation of one kind 1 or another, and at present the area ■ which had to be dealt with was. ronndl.v sneaking, some "twenty-five miles from' Charm? Cross. London to-day was not ' ( onlv tho greatest aggregation of people, but it was also the greatest riding city of tho world. In 191* tho average mini- I bor of ionrnevs taken in a year per head ; of the population of London was 303. He estimated now that tlm number of i ionrnevs had been increased to 30.1. PeoDle who lived in London had real- : lv lost all desiro to walk any consider- , able distance. When ho made tlmt statement, a little while ago it was sugtrested Hint his attention might be drawn j to the fact that if people had lost the . art of walking they had a so lost tho art of sitting down. (Laughter.) Per- , linns t.hat was true. (Cheers.) "he i facilities were quite inadequate to meet ; the needs. Tn 1919 all the combined , forms of transport in Greater I^i!|° n .. 1 carried 2900 millions of passengers. Within the next ten years he judged that | the fisure would have increased to at : least OOOfl millions, and to cope with the ; inorensn thev would have to shorten ; the time renitired to tiiko people to ana from their business. ... ' Someone had got to provide roads cap* ftblo of dealine with 375.000 motor-cars. : He predicted that a rapidly-increasing . numiier of underground railways would ; have to be built into London. \Vo j must "brine our railways more up-to the principles and standards of those pre- i vailine in Now York. 11l addition. W9 , should find it necessary to build in Lon- , don vast underground roads which would | bo devoted exclusively to tho use of fast ; motor traffic. They would be connect? i ed with the. outer districts by what j might be described as Ijoulevnrds. Lon- ; don must have a properly constituted authority established, having upon it ; men of courape, vision, and experience, ; who would really take hold of this prob-j lorn as their crent life's work. .

At a meeting of tlio Maslerton ! sivo Leoßiio on Monday nisht, it '■*.*>• ; cided to support the scheme to vnrob-is* ■ j the old Occidental Hotel bmblmpt • convert tlicm into an iip-to-dato h«tel consistent with the needs of t>i* town. j On December 22 at Plymouth (Massa. | cliusetts) the Pilgrims' Socicty observed tho 299 th anniversary of the landing oi, the Pilgrim Fathers with : appropriate i ceremonies. The' Tercentenary will be observed by an extended programme on. both aides'of the water next summer., Tho Mayflower reached Plymouth (Mass.): on December 21, 1620. -