Jan, The accounts of the Chinese Post Office Savings Bank, working under the direction of the Ministry of Communication: were reviewed in this column on January 20. For the first time fon record these accounts bore the audit certificate of a Foreign firm of Chartered Accountants, Messrs. Lowe, Bingham & Mat-[thows as well as of the Chinese firm, Messrs. Shu-Lun Pan & Ca. This innovation was apparently the first outward and visible sign of a new policy of adminis. tration which is now announced in some detail Admiral S. K. Chen, the Minister of the Navy, may be said to have given a lead by the engagement of Messrs. Lowe, Bingham & Matthews to investigate and modernise the recounting system for the Chu Chia munications, is understood to be highly impressed by the need for bringing commercial departments of the Government under the machinery' of commercial audit. He has therefore appointed Messrs. Lowe, Bingham Matthews to be Supervising Accountants and Auditors for those departments and to ae ce-operation with Messrs, Shu- 1 Lun Pan and Mr. Vu Lin-hsi, Chinese Auditors of the Postal Remittances and Savings Ba and the China National Aviation Corporation, respectively. This step forward will be applauded by those who realise the importance of sound administration and endorse the emphasis laid thereon in the comments made here only four days ago. The Ministry is to be congratulated ona courageous decision. Its influence may eventually be found to extend beyond the limits of the departments concerned to other Government enterprises. That, however, is for the present a matter of pure speculation. Certainly there is no intention on Mr. Chu Chia-hua's part to point any moral or to pretend that what may be sauce for the Communications goose is necessarily sauce for another department's gander. He is chiefly inspired by the knowledge that, within his portfolio, are important undertakings which are strictly commercial sri their character commercial criteria in ment of their requirements. is probable, too, that he has noted the growing tendency of governments in other parts of the world to rely on commercial Inccountaney to secure requisite Vbureaueratic efficiency. Wheither, in due course, the ex-nonce which his departments 1 thus obtain will stimulate similar developments elsewhere matter for future determination by independent judgment.
The Chinese Post Office is being brought within the scope of this new decision. This is directly in accord with the considerations which governed the British Government's appoint ment of an eminent Chartered Accountant. Lord Plender, to serve on the Bridgeman Commission for the' inquiry into the General Post Office administra. tion in 19382. It may be recalled that that Commission was appointed on the direct representation of 320 supporters of the Government in the House of Commons They were clearly impressed by the need for obtaining commercial examination of the Government's working of a commercial undertaking. In the event the Government promptly accepted the report's two main recommendations, one of which was the equipment of the department with what was called a system of "self-contain ed finance." In elaborating thi idea, the Commission declared +The judgment of proposals by commercial standards and the seratiny of, performance by the same standards would, in our Pt Equally, with a Opinion, be enforced upon the Detter realisation that the Post Office is a commercial organise. tion, we feel that the public will come to learn that it cannot demand Juxuries at the same price which it pays for necessi-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.