Girl Bus Conductor Badly Manhandled Foost Oon Own Commsrones:
Harbin, Jan, 24, The transfer of the bus service in Harbin from private owners to. that of the Muricipality has bees attended by a wunber of unplewant incidents, the worst being one which occurred the day before yesterday. Under the new regulations not more than three policemen in uniform are permitted to travel in any one bus free of charge, whereas formerly the police crowded in as many as could Stand. The new bus conductors are all young girls of polite manners. and certainly not able to cope with rough men it they choose to be rough and taking advantage of this: fact, some Manchu policemen behaved themselves ina very rude manner.
One of the new buses running on the route from the Pristan to New Town, on reaching the railway station, was besieged by a number of Manchu police. who wanted to board it, but the girl-conductor made room for three only, sccording to regulation, the bus being full of passengers. Further on, another batch of policemen forced the chauf-four to pull up, demanding that they should be taken on, and on the girl refusing, they handled her roughly, hitting her with their" rifles, and throwing her money bag on the floor of the bus.
'They then proceeded to damage' the Dus itself, banging the newly' painted sides with their rifles, in~ ally all going off, including the three who had boarded the bus at! the station. The girl was conveyed to the nearest dispensary where first id was given and then taken to the hospital where her injuries were: found to be serious enough to keep her in bed. "Detectives have been ut on the trail of the miscreants, and if they can be traced, severe Punishment will be dealt out to them Two more incidents of a minor nature occurred on the same bus route later, this" making all the girls afraid to work on this route, which {is one where police and soldiers are constantly travelling to and from their barracks. Probably the policemen did not know that the regulations as to their travelling by buses. had been altered but this can hardly be made an excuse for handling a young gid in the manner they did.
The Chinese Eastern. Railway The "Harbinskoe Vremya" in. its columns of this morning prints an article headed "To talk of an agreement on CER. questions is pre mature" and states that the most Important question is still in front, namely, the wording of the. agree" ment. it is, therefore, premature to talk of the' settlement of the aureement og in the composition of the text of the agreement, all points will have to be re-examined from the beginning, and only after being agreed on, will matters reach a fina stage. On several occasions it was stated. that an agreement had been reached fon all points, only to slide back again, and, therefore, this may be seen again' Dates for evacuation have Deen several times fixed, but all came to nought, and for ' that, reason the present settlement must} also be considered as premature.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.