In a recent article we explained some of the difficulties at present facing shipping companies and the effect the diversion of cargo-carriers had upon the number of local passages available. While this is all important to the man who wishes to go Home, there is another point to which attention cannot be drawn too often or too strongly, and that is how those desirous of travelling are themselves hampering the free use of the limited accommodation. Most prospective passengers place their names on the lists of all the steamship companies with the idea of missing no opportunity of a berth, but by so doing it very often happens that they receive several offers at once. One is accepted, and the other shipping companies have then to start over again and offer the passage to the next on their books. Again it happens that when somebody obtains a much desired passage he takes no steps to inform the other companies on whose lists his name appears. The result is that when these companies have a vacancy they proceed to write to the person first on their list and some time may elapse before they learn that he or she has gone. This is valuable time, for when it has been spent there is often no hope of letting some other applicant know soon enough for him to complete his packing. Accordingly every now and then a boat leaves Shanghai with vacant berths, and some unfortunates, either here or up-country, are yet further delayed. Cooperation on the part of intending passengers is something which the shipping companies have every right to expect, and the sooner it is accorded by the public the easier will the question of passages become.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.