Run At A Loss For Two Years With regard to the business condition of the Korean Railways for last fiscal year, an official in the Seoul Office of the S. M. R. Company states that, on account of the inactivity of the transport business due to the general economic depression, the receipts of tle+company during the period have shown a considerable decrease, resulting in a loss of over Yen 1,000,000.
When the estimates for last fiscal year were drawn up by the company, the transport business iZ|was most prosperous and nobody expected such a sudden advent of financial depression as overtook the Empire last year. As a matter of fact, with the idea of making good the shortage the Company revised the freight tariff in June last year. The economic depression, however, had already set in at the time and receipts witnessed a marked decrease. To make matters worse, the transport business suffered a heavy blow through the great flood and the prevalence of cholera throughout the peninsula. To cope with the situation, the management did everything possible to curtail with the result that fuel alone showed a decrease by Yen 780.000. Since the Korean Railways came into the hands of the M. R. Company four years have elapsed, and though the Company realized a net profit: of nearly two million yen for each of the first two years, that money had been invested in the railway undertaking in Korea. The last two years the Company suffered a loss of Yen 1,850,- 000 in all and was obliged to make good that amount by a subsidy from the Tairen Office.
In connexion with the above it is understood that the business prospects of the Korean Railways for the current year show little li provement and rumour is afloat that further economy will be effected by a great reduction in the number of employees.—"Scoul Press."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.