Feb, The delivery on Monday of letters from London dated January 10, (although up to that time the latest date of any London letter previously deliver: ed was December 81 or, possibly, January 1) has suggested that some kind of restoration of communications has occurred on the overland route. According to a statement just issued by the International Postal Union at Berne, the European mails brought to Shanghai by the Chinese Eastern Railway and South Manchuria Railway are carried by the Siberian Railway through Viadivostock. If the mail of January 10, to which reference is made above, has come by the Viadivostock route, it "would that about five days have been cut off the time previously taken for London mails to reach here and a transit period of about five days longer than the inal Manchuli, Harbin, Mukden, Tientsin, Pukow route has been attained.. Ithad been thought that the recent successes of the Japanese army in Manchuria had enabled the full mail service on the Chinese Eastern and South Manchuria Railways to be re-established. The statement issued from Berne suggests that this condition has been reached but, at present, it merely enables the European mails for Japan, Hongkong, Manila and Manchukuo to be carried on the two Manchurian railways named. The mails for China and therefore for Shanghai have still to be carried on the Siberian Railway to Viadivostock. This 18 due to the inability of the International Postal Union to accord its membership to the State of "Manchukuo," which has not been able to obtain the necessary sponsorship for election, may have something to do with the use of the longer route by Viadivostock.
This Information is of service for it throws a light on the difficulties in the way of re: establishing the overland route from East to West. Postally there seems to be no reason why letters from Shanghai should not be despatched for London by that route, To the credit of the Chinese Post Office it may be said that its officials and. its humble employees far out in the trackless interior are equal to Much severer tasks, Right into communist territory were letters carried last summer. Even now the Chinese Post Ofice is functioning in places where no other evidence of the authority of the [Chinese Government exists, The epic of the preservation of the service in' Manchuria for over nine months after the Japanese occupation had begun on Septem. ber 18, 1981 is fresh in the mind, It is believed that neither the Japanese authorities nor the nchukwo administration—a distinction without much difference—would do otherwise than assist in the renewal of the carriage of mails across from Dairen to Manchuli and vice versa, The Berne announcement seems to suggest that this course of action is not yet feasible from West to Bast. The statements of the Chinese authorities have made it clear that a similar inhibition prevails in the opposite direction. Tu short the cause of the dislocation is political. Until Berne had issued its statement id the belief was held that insist tence on this political disability lay solely with the Chinese Government. Apparently the authorities directing the policy of the International Postal Union are equally convinced of the validity of political objections to Use of the Manchurian " railway systems in present circumstances. In view of the incon. venience caused by this enhancement of the postal distances between Shanghai and Europe, it is to be hoped that, at the earliest possible moment, attention will be given to the meang of subordinating political considerations to the practical needs of the various communi-4 ties concerned.
The attitude. of the Chinese
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.