Such is a brief summary of our Mission, our Report, and our Recommendations.
Whilst we were impressed by the vast extent and infinite variety of the Empire domain we were also touched by the sentiment which held together its widely scattered parts. Without this sentiment, and without loyalty to the Crown and Mother Country, what, we often thought, would happen?
The war has taught us much as to the unity of the Empire. Peace, we may be sure, will bring its own lessons, perhaps its own dangers, in its train. To strengthen the bonds so loosely yet so finely drawn must henceforth be the constant duty of the Statesmen of the Empire. The governing machinery requires overhauling, demands adjustment to the needs of the various sections of the Empire, and to the throbbing anxiety of each to share in the duties and responsibilities of Empire Government and Development.
CHAPTER XXXII.
CONCLUSION
The year 1917 terminated our Dominions’ Commission work and brought to a close the fiftieth year of my railway life. As if to mark the occasion, Dame Fortune gave me a pleasant surprise, and what it was I will now relate.
In an earlier chapter I have spoken of the Letterkenny to Burtonport Railway (in North-West Donegal), with the early stages of which, in 1897, I had something to do. Now, in 1917, twenty years later, I was to become still more intimately acquainted with it, and, in an unexpected but practical way, concerned in its domestic affairs.
Though the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company, which worked the Burtonport line, was a railway of only 14½ miles in extent, it was entrusted with the working of no less than 85 other miles, 50 of which consisted of the Burtonport railway—a condition of things quite unique: the tail wagging the dog!
The total capital expenditure on the whole of the 100 miles of line worked by the Lough Swilly Company amounted to £727,000. Of this sum about £500,000, or 68 per cent., was money provided out of Government funds. The ordinary stock of the Lough Swilly Company was the exceedingly small sum of £50,330, upon which for twenty years a dividend of 7 per cent. had been regularly paid.
The Burtonport line was opened for traffic in 1903. From the first, its management, to say the least, was faulty and illiberal. So early in its
history as 1905 an inquiry into its working was found to be necessary, and I was asked by the Board of Works to undertake the inquiry. I did so, and I had to report unfavourably, for “facts are chiels that winna ding.” For some time after my report things went on fairly well, but only for a time. The Board of Works were, by Act of Parliament, custodians of the public interest in the matter of this and other similar railways, and a long-suffering and patient body they were. From time to time they complained, protested, adjured, threatened; sometimes with effect, sometimes without. Years rolled on and matters grew worse. Loud public complaints arose; the patience of the Board of Works exhausted itself, and a climax was reached.