(Editor, "North-China Daily News," 1911-1990)
London, June 9.
Old. residents of Shanghai on retiring to England have at least one memory (which is. noe to say they may not have others) for which they sigh. That is Shanghai's electricity supply.
There is no public service in Fngland so ill ce-ordinated and in many districts so grossly overcharged as electricity. In the International Settlement our electric light bills were negligible; even in the French Concession, they were nothing to worry about. Here in our village 20 miles from Hyde Park Corner, and served from à considerable river-side town which boasts at least two flourishing industries, we are charged bya. a unit, and only get a 100- volt-service (which is simply antediluvian) and indifferent at. that. There is also a strong report that our company manufactures no electricity itself but buys it from Chiswick at 3d. a unit and merely converts it to our voltage.
Yet weigare perhaps fortunate. There are Yar bigger places than Ours, nearer London, where as much as 84, is charged.
For years an agitation has "been &oing on to get better treatment for consumers, lower charges and more uniformity in them. A Commission was set up not long ago presided over by Lord McGowan, which recommended a series of amalgamations and groupings of suppliers and rates to be charged. Unfortunately this Commission was against anything savouring of State management, which caused our bureaucrats te throw its report on the dust heap.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.