Prest Qun Own Comesroxonst Harbin, Feb. 1.
The Acting President of the Chintso "Sastern Teallway, Be, It Stinskeng, who has been at Miiden fon important business and. has Fevurned to" his past in. Harbin, ery kindly explained many ters regarding the, present posit of affave in Manchuria, in general, fand'the railway. in particular.
'As rogands the rumours that there would be changes in the heads the "railway management. and that "he" himself "would. go." Moscows he" stated that "sok changes' would not Dkely take place for the moment as the President Gig not wish to make any" altera {lonsIn the Bond or Adhinistra on "The Chinese side of the Board were much against the discharging railway servants and hoped that fy the entire re-examination of the Tat gadget, "utelent' economies Would "be "introduced. to. svotd the dismissal of more servants, "At the present. moment. every. department doing its. best to. male furthoe economies in every. possible die tion, but this requires much Labour find' investigation. and, therefore, cannot be concluded very quickly.
'As regards railway' tariffs Chis question is occupying! the fall, at tention of the Board and the feral management, reports on "the matter being received from, various commercial societies and. those ite terested in export and. iveady several' reduction been" made in local freight are under consideration. 'Thus it in proposed to reduce timber son the Cat and Ussuri rae ways and also' revise the rates for Hour, bran, beancake "and "other Toeat' products Tt Te also" proposed to. reduce fecight on "stone and. sand which wil"considerably increase building operations in Hacbin and the tar towns along the. line. 'The Cussion of the above questions prove that the railway authorities fully alive to the prevent situation find' are anxious "to assist come mercial men in the development Bsnenuvias The, necessity "ofa ranging cartage from outlying. disc inlets fo the Failway line fs aso ery" important oe and must ally gone into, ea" in some eases, inducements ate offered. "to away goods to lines competing' wit ood ering with)
ds through traffic rates 'a matter which can only.
jointly with the fines that run to the seaports, and the C. cannot agree to reduce rates on its mileage only. a 'The idea that a reduction tu the export tariff for. beans would i prove the situation is a wrong 01 possibly if beans were to carried for nothing, there would still' be no export. The fact. is, that there is no demand for beant in Europe at present and when an anted by buyers, ud. price reduction will improve mal tors. An article may" be marked ridiculously cheap but if there isn buyer for it, it, will not sell.
As regards the stof! of the rail-the loss of 10 per cent. in salaries has not affected then at all, as. all necessaries and tapecially foodstuffs, have fallen even more than this figure, 'The present purchasing value of the Harbin dollar is much above what nas la year, ands al' the stof are paid in gold roubles, they are actually better of. than they: were last year, even with' the reduction in salaries Mr. Li Shao-keng expressed, his strong conviction that the end of the World economic crisis far off, as history proved that those of former, years: were not of Yang duration, The trade of Manchuria was likely to resume. its normal flow very. shortly, and in such case it would not be neces sary to alter rates of freight on the, Chinese Eastern Railway to such an extent as would upset the present system of working.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.