The Washington herald., 1921-08-21
BRITISH AUTOlSTS
TELL PROBLEMS
AT ANNUAL MEET
Trying to Get Back to
Pre-War Conditions
A Hard Task.

LONDON, Aug. 20.-The sixteehtn
annual meeting Of members OF the
Association and Motor
Irnion ~ Great Britain was held AZ
the savoy Hotel on July II. SIT
William JOHNSON Hicks, BIT. M. r"
ths chairman Of the association,
presided. a. en-.
.rruaI report Sir william said there
was little to state except that the
.ssoeiation consists Of 1sO.oe1
motorists. with an income of just
aho,t a quarter Of a million per an
mum.
During the past two years tns as
ISOLATION had tried TO get DICK "
prewar conditions OF service "
members, and had done It's utnos'
to develop the road service ana tns
road patrols. To-Day instead
trundling themselves along on push
cycles, as they had to prior 10 me
war, the patrols were nearly al
now provided with motor oicycies'
and were therefore able to cover a
very much larger extent OF country
and be much more useful 10 mem
bers than they were prior TO the war
They had also introduced q mechan-
ical first-aid system, wnich Is on
its trial, and was in course OK ae-
yelopment. 1t had been very useiui
to members who had broken down:
either from the point OF view OF
their cars, or through accidents 10
themselves.
Roadside Phones.
Another postwar provision had
been the extension Of the A. A.
roadside telephone service. Ihey
were now able to arrange, by giving
members keys to the roadside tele-
phone boxes, that any member IN
trouble could go at once to a teIe-
phone box. even after the hour when
the A. A. patrol had left. and get In
touch with any part of the king
| iom.
Last year he was able to announce
| the opening of one roadside tueI
! supply station at Aldermaston. TO-
day there were eight in existence
situated at points where II Is Gener'
ally very difficult to obtain petrol.
Nearly 1900 road signs have
been put up by the association. bu'
now. In accordance with the prin'
ciples under which we live in these
days, the ministry Of transport. In
conjunction with their ADVISORY
committee. had undertaken this
work and were supporting the adop-
ton Of a signpost which had really
been designed by the automobile as
sociation. The association. however
would keep a very close watch upor
the public and local authorities Il
see that this siEnposting work was
properly done, for they could no.
see the work done SO well by thu
association fall into neglect because
public authorities did not carry ou'
their duties in this. direction.
During the past year they had de
voted considerable time to goint
through the lists OF A. A. garage
and official repairers and hotels
Complaints were made towards tn
end Of the year that these A. A. ap
pointments were not altogether al
ways justified. During the pas
year Official appointments had beei
constantly under revision. and sew
eral names had in the course Of tn
year been removed. The intention
wa, to make these appointed
establishments ones upon whicl
members OF the motoring publ
could definitely rely.
Many Touring Routes.
The development of the touring
side Of the association during tn
past twelve months had been ex
traordinary: 1850 routes in Grea
Britain. covering a mileage Of IS.
$4,000 miles, had been issued Z
members.
With regard to other matters h
was bound to confess that at tn
moment he saw no possibility of
change from what they regarded a
very unfair system OF taxation
the taxing of horse power. The
had always maintained that tn
only fair way was to tax upon use
t They were taxed because IL wa
said that they ruined the roads
The only fair way would be TO Ia