Since 1920 the Railway has peep surrounded by most abnormal] conditions and with the chaotic state of affairs there would have been a breakdown as was the case with the neighbouring Russian railways had there not existed among the Chinese and Russians a true_ spirit of ce-operation and sympathy. As a matter of fact the C. E. R. is not a "national Russian enterprise'"' as your correspondent would make out, it is a commercial undertaking in the form of a joint-stock company, the shares of which can only be held by Chinese and Russians. It would therefore be absurd policy on the part of the Chinese dircotors to hamper the progress of the railway in itg regular work or not to cooperate with the general manager in increasing the efficiency of the railway. It 1s quite true that the late Tsarist Government spent considerable sums for the railway, but this money was spent under defined conditions that were set forth in' the original agreement concluded in 1896 between the Chinese Government and the Russo-Chinese Bank. And as the Agreement provides that all the profitg of the railway, after the part that is distributable among the shareholders ig paid, shall go to the redemption of the railway on behalf of China, which has the right to redeem the whole line at cost, after 36 years of operation less what has been paid through the process of redemption by the surplus of the railway, it will be seen, that it is in the interes's of the Chinese to ce-operate in every way. for the Railway's welfare.
It is not true that the extraordinary expenses of tha railway have increased, for during. the Russian regime it was algo the railway that had to maintain the railway guards, the railway police, and contribute towards the upkeep of churches, prisons and law-courts, The number of railway employees is slightly under 10,000 or the same as it was before the Great War, when working under normal conditions. When the joint Chinese-Russian management took charge it was over 13,000, thanks the: former Russian general - manager having engaged numbers of re-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.