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By JAN US
WHEN we visited the circus 20 years or more ago we were satisfied to see a lady in tights standing on the bare back of a horse while it trotted round the sawdust ring. Such a spectacle would not be enough for a circus audience to-day. The lady would he expected to leap from one horse to another, to turn somersaults in the process, and perform feats that we should find impossible to do ourselves even on the ground.
The applicant for a licence who comes before the Licensing Authority must feel very much like the circus star. It was hard enough in the old days to do the trick successfully. Nowadays, more and more complications are added, until the obtaining of a licence seems to the breathless audience little short of a miracle.
For those people who cannot get tickets to see the circus this year, may I recommend a visit to the court over which the Appeal Tribunal presides as Ringmaster.
A new equestrian act: featuring the Railway Executive and the Nine Yorkshire Trainers, and worked out just in time for the circus season, contains amazing feats never previously ... performed in public.
In accordance with tradition, Enters the Aren the first turn is simple. The
Ringmaster announces that a horse is not being "processed" or " treated " when it takes part in a race, and the trainer may not legally carry the animal to and from the racecourse in a C-licensed vehicle if he makes a charge. This is a familiar routine, but novelty is supplied by the admission that the trainers have, in fact, been in the habit of using their vehicles in this way.
Next follows some light knockabout stuff, in which the respondents belabour the poor Railway Executive from every angle. It is alleged that, where the Executive undertakes to carry racehorses, vehicles are not always provided when required; .there are delays in transport; there are risks of infection and doping, and of carrying colts and fillies in the same horsebox; and charges are sometimes excessive.
"A New Eq uestrian Act, Featuring the R ailway Executive and the Nine Yor kshire Trainers,"
Harmless Clowning The Executive defends itself vigorously, and no doubt the onlookers are amused. They know from past experience that this clowning is not very serious, and that, if anybody be hurt, it is never the Railway Executive..
Now comes the time for the grand climax to the act. The excitement among the _spectators increases. They have been promised a new thrill, and are not disappointed.
First is paraded the celebrated Enston decision, laying upon the newcomer the onus of proving that there are persons ready and willing to give him traffic which no existing operators are able to handle. This was a stiff enough hurdle beforenationalization. Now that the British Transport Commission is unhampered by licence restrictions, it can add to the obstacle by putting more vehicles on the road. It can always, if it chooses, claim to be in a position to " handle " the traffic. The efforts of the opposition must be limited to showing that the word should more accurately he "mishandled." Attention was drawn to this point by the Licensing Authority for the Yorkshire Area, where the case waS originally heard. He thought the Enston rule should "in equity" no longer be applied when the B.T.C. was an objector. Otherwise the Licensing Authority would be fettered in his discretion.
The Ringmaster does not share the doubts of the
Yorkshire Licensing Authority. In the view of the Appeal Tribunal, the Authority will continue to administer the 1933 Act, but in so doing will have regard to the duty of the B.T.C. to give the public an efficient, adequate, economical and properly integrated transport system.
Having cracked his whip somewhat severely, the Ringmaster relaxes a little with the sardonic observation that "the suitability of an objector's transport facilities are not to be judged of by reference to the number of his vehicles alone, but rather on the basis of their availability and the service they give in order to meet the reasonable requirements of the applicants." Cold comfort for most applicants, but, as it happens, just -the right encouragement for the Nine Trainers.
The Appeal Tribunal's decision goes on to say; in effect. that the availability of Railway Executive horsebox vehicles and the service provided are not adequate to meet the "reasonable requirements of the applicants." The great equestrian act has been accomplished, and the Nine Trainers ride triumphantly off the stage.
We come away from the circus conscious of having -witnessed a magnificent performance. Nobody but the Nine Trainers, we feel, could have sueceeded. The doubt remains whether the added difficulties are not bringing us to the limits of the human constitution. The best juggler in the world will one day, find it impossible to take on another Indian club; the greatest tight-rope walker cannot make do with one wire less.
The disadvantages of the use, by racehorse trainers of B.T.C. vehicles happen to be unusually strong. The Tribunal, refers to special" needs "inherent in the racehorse training industry and often quite unpredictable." The trainers had "good grounds for complaining of the risks they ran" if compelled to use publiC transport.
It is easy to imagine other newcomers who are not, from this point of view, in nearly so strong a position. Their enterprise and courage will be of no avail against an antagonist who, like Antmus, increases in strength at every rebuff.
A new applicant for a licence is an isolated individual. National agitation on his behalf would be as unexpected as a campaign for the political rights of unborn
children. Without a licence, he has no status. He cannot qualify for the advantages of membership of a hauliers' association; he may even find hauliers in the opposition camp.
A visit to a negotiating committee may help him at least to frame his application in the form most likely c19 a of Transport to be acceptable. Is it too much to hope, in addition, that the Licensing Authorities may constitute themselves the protectors of the unfortunate new applicant shut out from the fold with less and less likelihood of ever getting in?
More than one Licensing Authority has given his views on the unfortunate effect of the Transport Act upon entry into the road haulage industry. The Yorkshire Authority is obviously disquieted at the position. The Northern Authority recently described the evidence of a Road Haulage Executive unit manager
as " useless " because, if he had no vehicle available, there was nothing to prevent him,from buying, one, whereas in the past no provider of transport could get an additional vehicle without making application. `-,` If that is not abstracting traffic," said the Authority, " I do not know what is—particularly when 1 am dealing with short-distance traffic."
• Views from such a source must be given careful consideration. We may yet see a determined effort to remedy the present ills, and to give the poor circus performer at least a fair crack of the whip.