Oct, 20.
The Shanghai Telephone Company is to be told that the Council cannot entertain its application for increased rates in its present form. In 1935 the Company will be entitled under the Franchise Tariff Clauses to make a formal recommendation for an increase of 40 per cent. Meanwhile, to remedy the Present unforeseen position wherein the fall in the tael has prevented the Company from paying. dividends and, indeed, inflicts on it a deficiency which, unless checked, will amount to Tls. 4,643,000 in March, 1935, the Councils were asked to agree to an immediate increase in the tariff of about 24 per cent. If this had been granted the effect, of course, would have been to reduce the steepness of the curve Yeading from the figures of the tariff now prevailing to the prospective jones after March, 1936, assuming seems not unnatural from the auditors' independent report—that the proposals then contemplated would be justified and accepted. The Shanghai Municipal Council is presumably. keeping in close touch with the authorities of the French Concession in this matter. That is a vital measure of—precaution for, obviously, the rela. tions of an important public utility. service with Shanghai involves major issues of policy on which it is exceedingly desir-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.