§ MR. BRYCE (Aherdeen, S.)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, having regard to the increasing congestion of traffic in the streets of London, and to the need for more rapid modes of transit between distant parts, His Majesty's Government will Consider the desirability of instituting an inquiry, by Royal Commission or otherwise, into the means of locomotion and transportation in London on and beneath the surface, including the better regulation of vehicular traffic, the possibility of appropriating certain thoroughfares to certain kinds of traffic, the means of facilitating the construction of electric tramways along, or immediately beneath, the streets, and the steps to be taken for creating a properly arranged and conveniently inter-connected system of deep-level electric railways. In putting this Question, may I explain that it is not intended by it to suggest that such an inquiry should in any way supersede any ordinary inquiries before Committees of the House specially appointed to consider the question of particular Bills. It is meant to lay down the outlines of a scheme, and especially to consider the question of deep-level railways.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURI think that the subject to which the right hon. Gentleman refers is one of the first importance, not merely for the metropolis, but for the country at large. The only hesitation I have in giving an affirmative reply to the interrogatory on the Paper is lest a Royal Commission should have the effect of unduly delaying necessary steps, but I will consider the matter, and I think, in all probability, a Royal Commission would he the best course.
§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Louth, N.)Will the right hon. Gentleman take care that the terms of reference to any Royal Commission will provide for a very important matter not mentioned at all in the Question—namely, how the capital for these ideal schemes is to be obtained?
§ [No answer was returned.]