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The average run of British motor accidents—about 150 per week—provided Major Hore-Belisha with a terrific TRAFFIC CRISIS. Dashing about to inspect the terrain on which no citizen's life could be considered safe, the major was photographed on his motorcycle as a sort of Mussolini of Motoring. He decreed barber-striped safety islands and chevron-striped crossing lanes. In order to restore to London what he called "the priceless boon of sleep" he issued a dread ukase that no horn may be sounded between 1.1:30 p. m. and 7 a. m., another compelling horns to be sounded in certain specified emergencies. Jail sentences caused Punch to cartoon a motorists' prison for hornblowers and non-horn-blowers (see cut). Other Punch cartoons depicted the predicament of a motorist with a cold whose nose-blowing sounded illegal to a London Bobby (see cut, p. 19); and the instruction given by two parents to their infant son as to his rights under a Belisha Beacon (see cut, p. 19). Last week's air gunning of the beacons was the first revolt against Hore-Belishment by the highly organized forces of British motordom. In no other country are motorists so admirably self-disciplined. Over 5,000 neatly uniformed service men of the Automobile Association and Royal Automobile Club ceaselessly patrol the Kingdom's roads. They informally direct traffic when necessary, supply information, carry first aid kits and minor spare parts, change tires and make small repairs for members of the A.A. or R.A.C. and salute smartly whenever a member's car flashes by.
Nowhere else does a motorist, on finding or losing, say, a glove or a side curtain, expect that it will return to its owner through the smooth clearing channels of organized motoring. Before buying a used car the British motorist has it "expertized" by his club, knows what he is buying. Last week nobody knew better than Major Hore-Belisha that his antics as Minister of Transport are merely a smart flash in the political pan. They may help to blow him far, even perhaps—eventually—to the Prime Ministry.