Last month there was held in Madrid, the capital of Spain, the regular convention of the International Railway Congress. This gathering may, at first sight, appear of little importance to the New Zealand railwayman. As a matter of fact, the International Railway Congress performs the most valuable work on behalf of railways the world over. Not only does it afford a round table for the discussion, among the nations, of all affairs relating to railways and railway operation, but, by the world-wide circulation of the papers read by experts (in their respective fields) at the conference, it enables railway folk everywhere to keep in touch with current developments in transportation, and provides a stimulus for progress in all departments.

To-day, “railroading,” as our American friends style our work, knows no national boundaries. It is now an international undertaking, demanding the closest co-operation of railway men in every land. The International Railway Congress, as an association for the interchange of railway technical experience between the world's railways, provides a most striking example of the value of international co-operation—and this association is but one of several bodies now helping in the betterment of international communications.

Well to the fore among international railway associations of which New Zealand railway men should know something, is the International Railway Union, established, in 1922, at the instigation of the French railways. Sixty-two railway undertakings, belonging to thirty-three different European and Asiatic lands, are members of this union, which aims at facilitating international rail movement, and co-ordinates European railway opinion on vital international questions arising before the League of Nations and the International Chamber of Commerce.

Then, of the League of Nations, there is that advisory and technical committee which deals with communications and transit, the Railway Time-table Conference, which has done wonders in the improvement of European long-distance transport; and that well-known organisation, the International Chamber of Commerce. All of these international undertakings are performing invaluable service to mankind, and, by railway men especially, they are worthy of the most whole-hearted support.