BRITISH RAILWAYS AND THE WAR
ance by passenger train or other similar service must be paid by the sender at the forwarding station." The whole system of bills and accounts for passenger goods traffic was thus swept away. Some reformers even proposed that the railways should go further, and insist upon the prepayment of all small traffic by goods trains. Still another step was a decision that claimants for the loss or damage of goods traffic should be dealt with by the company on which the claim was made without any division, such as had formerly taken place, of the amount paid between the companies concerned in the route over which the traffic had been conveyed.
The saving in printed matter was so extensive that at least one large company was able to turn out many tons of paper which had been stored for office use and to put this on the market at a time when paper was scarcest.
In January, 1917, in addition to the changes already described, passenger rates were raised 50 per cent., and Irish railways, which had formerly been outside the Government control, were taken into it. The rise in passenger rates was instituted not to increase revenue, but to reduce the amount of travelling. The British authorities openly appealed to the people not to travel except when necessary. It was urged on the public in every way possible that pleasure travelling under existing conditions was unpatriotic. The railwaymen were wanted for other work. Thus at the Christmas season of
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