The Ministry says quite frankly cannot hope to accomplish any thing fundamental in improving the service provided by the Chinese rullway aystem. Neither can it do} more than tinker with a few pal-] Tiatives, but foreign business men fare pleased with what has already been done, and hope that at least the Ministry will confine the po-Tiey it has Inid down of uprooting patty malpractices that axe almost 4s much a handicap to, trade a military interference, The econ Conference tooms to mark, the end of eaiseez faire in the Ministry.
One resolution of the conference, the simplification and reduction of railway transit taxes, was handled with a speed that was almost. in-Aecent.in this ity of procrastination. The day after it was passed, General Chang Ying-buat went, to the Cabinet meeting, after his forral opening. of the conference, ard persuaded his colleagues to petition relief. The instruction was issued the next day.
Most of the foreign business men reported on the corrupt methods of] station masters in wrongly classitying goods for the purpose of exacting exorbitant freight charges. This has been a pro life source of squeeze. Another source is the open selling of cars to the highest hidders, Still "another lucrative side-line of station officials is the levying of transit taxes according to schedules that have no other justification than the mathematical feaprice of the station masters. Some of these'worthies have printed their Jown tariff schedules for the guidance of the business community. They were exhibited to the conference by a business man, who proceeded to prove that the total cost of transporting a ton of wool from Paotou to Tientsin, including both legitimate and illegitimate taxation, amounted to six times the total freight charges for the same shipment between Tientsin - and New York?
The Discrimination Against the Foreigner Another complaint of the -foreigner relates to the discrimination ugdinst his goods on the railway. These are sometimes charged many imes the amount that the Chinese has to pay. Though this is a direct, violation of Washington conference Jengagements, no use was made of the political weapon, and the point brought out was that many foreign firms had transferred their business from the railways to the waterways to the loss of the railways concern. ed. The economic argument may' yel secure comprehensive amelioration of this discriminatory treatment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.