I wish to raise the question of London Traffic. The Prime Minister this after noon gave us a reply to a question with regard to amending legislation on this subject, but I thought it was a fitting opportunity to-night to ask the Minister of Transport whether he can elaborate in some detail what the intentions of the Government are in this respect. It will be within the recollection of the House that a Bill upon this subject was undertaken by the late Government. The problem of London traffic, as everybody knows, is an extremely complex one. Although I do not say that the Bill which we possessed was an agreed Bill, yet. I maintain that there was a certain amount of general support which promised that such a Bill would become law. From the answers to the questions which have been put to the Government, it is clear the contents of the late Bill, as we will call it, have not been received with favour by the present Government, and I will not be so impertinent as to ask the Minister what are the provisions of the Bill which the Prime Minister promised to introduce. But I ask that the traffic question should not be used as a lever to force on the ideas possessed by several hon. Members opposite of a Greater London authority. Should that be done, then, of course, resistance to a Bill of that kind would naturally follow. I maintain that the traffic question, urgent, as it is, must be regarded as something quite apart from the reorganisation of the big London authorities. I am convinced that even if the Minister has hopes and ideas as to a Greater London authority, he can invent a Measure capable of being transferred in toto from the Ministry of Transport to such an authority, should he ever have it established.

I know that this problem is a particularly urgent one. Everybody who lives in London knows that. And I also think that, on a question like this, which changes in its difficulties from day to day, any legislation that we may pass to-day may be hopelessly inadequate to-morrow. The problem, as anyone who has gone into it knows, is of extreme complexity. The conditions due to motor traffic are changing from hour to hour, and in that connection I wonder if the Minister can say what are the views of his Department upon what is known as the Yarrow bridge. It is a most astonishing thing that, in this great city, we have no powers of controlling the traffic such as are possessed by any ordinary provincial town. First, we cannot even limit the number of omnibuses, nor have we the power to prescribe their routes; and one of the most distressing things is that we have no power to co-ordinate those undertakings which have the right to pull up the roadways. At any time an authority may build the most perfect road in the world, and a fortnight afterwards other authorities can pull it up quite irrespective of the time of the year at which it is done. These are conditions which I attribute to no particular party. They have grown up, but, none the less, they are a scandal and should be removed as soon as possible. I take this opportunity of congratulating the Minister of Transport upon his appointment, and I doubly congratulate him because he is in the position of Minister of Transport, whereas I think his immediate predecessors have been Parliamentary Secretaries to the Ministry. I hope, when he makes his first statement, he will be able to tell us and all Londoners that he has a Measure in preparation which will be introduced immediately, so that it may become operative in the summer months.