'As you are aware, the control of: this company passed' to Shanghai in the early part of last year and. this is the first annual meeting to be held here. There are obvious advantages in having control here in that it enables your Directors to have per~ sonal contact with matters generally affecting your business and with the Staff. T would like to take this opportunity of expressing our thanks {tm the late Board for the able manner in which they presided over the affairs of the company for so many years, It may not be out of place here if! 1 draw attention to some phases of the local trafic problem as they affect the operation of tramway and trolley bus services.
The tramway track is of metre gauge and therefore not suitable for the operation of double deck vehicles, in lieu of which we operate trains of two single deck vehicles which, {in our opinion, form the most. sult: able and safest medium for moving heavy trafic under the—conditions which obtain in Shanghai. The track gauge was limited to one metre befeause many of the roads traversed by the tramways do not allow of a wider gauge. Limitations in road width, turning circles and narrow turnings in places also restrict the size of our trolley buses.
The alm of a passenger transport undertaking is to move the greatest number of people in the shortest time, but unfortunately the congestion on the roads reduces the aver-
I cannot, of course at this stage, give you any opinion as to what the result of the appeal or any sub-Jsequent negotiations is likely to be, Jut you will understand that If By reason of legal diftculties the proposed arrangement for the severance fof relations cannot be concluded, the interests of your Company rest upon the existing Management Agreement fas they do now.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.