LT.-COL. J. T. C. MOORE-BRABAZON-M.O.T.

LT.-COL. J. T. C. MOORE-BRABAZON M.O.T.

WE offer belated but none the less sincere congratulations to Lt.-Col. John Theodore elithhert Moore-Brabazon, INI.C., M.P.,on his appointment to the position of Mink-ter of Transport in his fifty-sixth year. Motorists will, we hope, be able to claim to have defeated popular superstition, for Moore-Brabazon is the thirteenth Minister of Transport. since the office was created in August, 1919— and the motorist’s luck is overdue for a change for the better. In Moore-Brabazon we have a practical man who has shown sympathy towards motoring in his past political career. Indeed, long before he entered into polities he was a motoring enthusiast of the first order. He won the Circuit des Ardennes Race in 1907 on a Minerva ; he holds No. 1 Pilot’s Certificate granted by the Royal Aero Club, and in 1909 took the prize of 41,000 put up by The Daily Mail for the first flight of a circular mile in an all-British machine. During lie 1914-18 war he ser ved with the Royal Flying Corps, He drives his own Vauxhall 14 io-day, after o NIVII ing some 200 cars. He has performed oil tst aiiclingly on the Cresta Run at St. Moritz. :-;0 Moore

on Brabazon is a man, as well as politician, who is very likely to give motorists a fair deal. And he is obviously the sort of person who will understand the value of speed in reasonable places, as distinct from what is so often wrongly called ” reasonable ” speed in any place, at any time. Already he has made his influence felt in connection with the Free Lifts scheme. By releasing to individual motorists, and with a minimum of red-tape, from 10 to 80 gallons or more of petrol a month, he not only has shown a broadminded and sensible approach to an acute war problem, but has silenced scaremongers who seek to suggest that petrol is, becoming scarce, or denied us by enemy action, and that motoring should be brought to a standstill. That 18,000 London motorists went in person to claim this allowance of petrol— for which they had to pay and had in many cases to re-tax the cars in which they were going to use it—in the first week of the scheme is a strong ease for the store we Britishers set on motoring, no less than a cause for congratulation on the part of the pedestrians it is designed to relieve. Most of these 18,000 motorists measure this outlay of time and money in terms of increased convenience. To the enthusiast, the added driving pleasure of anything from 100 to 300 or so extra miles a month, after being restricted to less than 200 miles a month, will be additionally appreciated, but it in no way lessens the store set merely on the convenience of private car operation by 18.000 Londoners. That fact. should not be forgotten when private motoring is reviewed by Government departments after the next Armistice. Lt.-Col. Moore-Brabazon has won the hearts of the Press by recent informal talks and discussions. He has acted most commendably in permitting the v;ite motorist to use his car, in return for valuable, almost essential, free service in clearing up transport troubles in a much-bombed town. He will do great things for road users of all classes when Peace comes again, if he remains in office. A man who handled racingcars as they were in 1909 so expertly as to win a classic race, and who flew competitively in early aeroplanes and won his prize, will not frown on the sensible use of speed, neither will be place any obstacle in the way of much-needed road development or the reasonable use of motor ears for purposes of relaxation. We con

gratulate our new Minister of Transport and wish him well.