The next instalment of Western civilisation contemplated in the Szechuan metropolis is the telephone. Seeing that the official and business residences of foreigne: s are inside the city walls, while they and their families actually dwell in bungalows on the hills across the river—a two hours' journey at the quickest—telephonic communication is a necessity, and a local company is now being formed to provide the necessity capital. Indeed, as 1 have pointed out before, nothing more inconvenient than are all the official arrangements at this unique treaty port can possibly be imagined. If the powers that be had set out with the deliberate intention of showing how business should not be done, they could hardly have acted differently from what they have. The Customs head office is in one corner of the city, the examining pontoon is across the river at the head of a dangerous rapid, the Customs Bank is in another portion of the city, and the foreign Consulates in another remote corner of the city, and that the farthest shud and the farthest removed from the business quarter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.