Anxiety of Foreign Firms over Postponement of Payment of Debts Already Incurred Reports from Tientsin are to the effect that the Tientsin-Pukou and, the Peking-Mukden line have suffered so from military depredations that only four locomotives remain to the railways, and these are in constant danger of military sequestration, On the Peking-Hankow me, the rolling stock has become depreciated that there is a posibility that the northern section of the railway will have to suspend because of insufficient equipment. When a locomotive starts, clouds of steam arise from the leaky pipes, boilers and cylinders.
According to these same reports, which are of a private nature to commercial houses, the Peking-Mukden line thas lost 30 locomotives from freezing and burst. boilers. Cylinders and pipings have cracked 80 that the locomotives are absolutely useless. Two-thirds of the water tanks along this line have burst, The Ministry of Communications, has no money for repairs and replacements. The various railways have been required to make contributions to the militarists and are unable to finance themselves, Rail-wayman expect that the lines. will altogether disappear except the tracks and the road bed. Firms to which the Ministry of Communications is indebted for goods delivered are particularly worried, because the disappearance of the rolling stock further delays the possibility of the roads to make money, as the first necessity will be replacement and, therefore, payment to them is still further postponed. The iitarists do nothing to keep up. the Tines which they seize, and railway officials are beaten by soldiers when they attempt to interfere with the destruction of the lines.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.