The staff in the Wayside exchange had an even more nerve-wrecking time. On August 17 fighting was taking place in the streets around the exchange and numerous corpses were in the streets. Incessant sniping added to the dangers of the staff. Only when shells began to fall around the building was the exchange eva enated and then only for a short period. At very great risk next day, ihe foreign and Chinese staff braved the dangers for the purpose of transferring numerous Wayside subscribers to another exchange, Not enough subscribers were left in the district to justify the continuance of Wayside. The exchange stood amid devastated surroundings, its own shattered windows and scarred walls showed the ferocity of the nearby fighting.
The welfare of the big staff presented a grave problem in the early days of stress. Most of the Chinese staff had their homes in Chapei and Nantao. The Company came to the rescue and built a special camp for the men and their families on Route Lorton. The Company considered the conduct and loyalty of its Chinese staff almost beyond praise. About this time 10,000 sandbags were used to protect the windows of the North office and more protected the first and second floors of the Central office against air raids, A splinter proof shelter was erected at Hungjao as a refuge for the staff. At the Company's request the Japanese Residents' Association boarded up the windows at Wayside as a protection against looters and shelling. At all buildings mest elaborate precautions were taken fo: the protection of employees In spite of all the extra work involved by the various emergency measures, the Company found time to develop a new kind of service, known as the Watchman's Checking Service, so that subscribers were able io keep in constant touch, through trained operators, with watchmen in godowns in areas north of the Creek, or with servants in temporarily vacated premises.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.