To the Editor of the "Nonti-Cuina Dairy News."
Sim—As Messrs, Mackinnon, Mackenzie somewhat vaguely state (in answer to "Puzzled's" enquiry) passage rates are determined by a These extra-costs are sooner or later Imposed in various forms upon the General Public of Shanghai, of which the middle and elasses—both Foreign and Chinese /Home—and the Dole. worthy men amongst. us _who,|"umber of factors. They are value cain, there ness ina small manner, have of the serviee—this determi suffered. but who are fopper. limit of any rate. attraction or. volume—having a struggling along with the assistance downward tendency on rates due to suffer most thereby.
The bulk of Shanghai's em: ployees has not the good fortune of enjoying such advantages, and. yet sympathetic helping hand provided by others. Among this section also are married men with dependents. Further, the applica they have to live, A great many] tions for employment by married) of them are still on the same level|men in the records' of the local fu their pay as they were pethaps|Chambers of Commerce can reveal about two years ago, the beginning. of the depreciation of Silver, and if lucky got an increase or extra of about 10 per cent. as in my case.
By now prices of almost all commodities of life have gone up by 0 per cent, to 100 per cont—even more than." In addition to this we fe now to go through the worst: Salary cuts and dismissals.
Every sensible person will agre that at a time as the present one, salary cuts at least are necessary if.a firm wants to carry on and all other possibilities of reducing expanese are exhausted, Jan equally tragic aspect.
The foregoing as the troduction
Jdisgraceful fact, that, to the other, side of the story the in this unprecedented period of stress there are numbered among us husbands who are good positions and in ceipt of a salary which is more than sufficient to satisfy the ultra social spirations of both man and wife, but who yet writ their wives to take up employment, the sake of what is purely "pi Club" money. Do these "men" and also the employers of their wi not appreciate that what is "pin the fact that the more persons car~ ried, the less the individual cost. Purchasing or spending power of travelling public or "what the traffic }will bear". Cost of service—determining the lower limit of any rate.
There is no hard and fast formula for the calculation of rates, but the relation between them may be broadly determined so. Multiply the distance travelled by the number Jof days on the voyage to obtain total units of service for money paid. Iam not quite clear as to the route followed on the Blue Funnel summer cruises, but the distance covered must be somewhere in the region of 3,500 miles. Then:—3,300 % 20° 4,850 unite per 20 lent route) is approximately 11,000 miles:—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.