Some idea of the losses which the -Cainese Eastern Railway. has suffered during the present year may be gained from the following figures, The railway has lost about 1,250,000 tons of goods traffic compared with the figures for 1929, up to the end of November. Reckoning the freight on this large quant ty at a very low rate, the loss in cash receipts is enormous and it is no wonder that the most severe measures must be adopted by the Board to avoid getting iu: to great financial difficulties.
Even the drastic cuts which have Deen made in staff and salaries will not cover the enormous loss from. the fall in goods trafic, To this has to be added a very great fall in passenger traffic the number of emigrants entering Manchuria. this year being far below those of the ast few years, At one time there was' a rush of emigrants from the central provinces of China to Manchuria on the assumption that the country was a wealthy one and exceedingly prosperous The Sino-Soviet conflict of last yenr gave a nasty knock to this and the rents now being charged by large landowners for agricultural and is making matters fay from rosy, With no demand for export, the jocal peasants are left without ash and are finding the greates: dificuity in meeting their obli tions in the way of taxes and rent The danger of commonistie ideas being spread amongst them is becoming greater, though those who live close to the Siberian border Know the manner in which Russian peasants on the other side of the Amur are now living and have no wish to work in the menner they do, Every Chinese wants to work for himself and the principle of collective farming appeals to him no more than it does to the Soviet Peasant, who at present sows only sufficient to pay government taxes and have enough for his own family.
The crisis in Manchuria is reaching am acute stage and trade will not improve until there is a movement in the bean market. Yesterday beans were unsaleable at 90 cents per pood, beancake were offered freely at'63 cents per pod and bean oil at four dollars per ood, about the lowest price ever seen for this commodity if the value of the local dollar is taken into account, With the opening of the New "Year measures will have to be taken to prevent. matters from going worse than they now are, Unauthorized Loans Without the slightest warning a number of auditors suddenly swooped down on the cath department of the Chinese Eastern Railway yesterday and carried out an examination of the books and the cash balances in a few hours. The staff were surprised that they became nervous and could not reply to questions in a proper manner. As 'a result of the examination, it was found that some twenty thousand old roubles had been advanced to nts in the higher positions on their note of hand alone, with promises to pay out of salaries over a period of a year. This is entirely contrary to the regulations and a very careful investigation will now made as to the persons responsible for permitting such departure to the rules. "Tt seems that many of the new heads of departments who arrived from Soviet Russian without a cent of their own, had to borrow sums up to 1,500 gold roubles to enable them to purchase furniture for their houses and to supply themselves with clothes, Ne doubt the whole of the amounts vanced will be repaid out of salon jin due time, but the fact remains that the manner of getting the cash was not in accordance with the rules of the cash department and someone has exceeded authority, Soviet's Final Offer
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.