Nov. 13.
The Shanghai Municipal Council has adopted the Report of the Telephone Experts who, invited to examine the proposals of the Shanghai Telephone Company for an increased tariff and the institution of a business message rate, have unanimously recommended the acceptance of the tariff in a certain modified form and the application of the message rate system to all subscribers, The Council has done well, for the mere fac'. that four experts of different nationalities, could come to a unanimous conclusion gave their Report exceptional authority. It is timely, indeed, to pay tribute to the labours of these four gentlemen who are now. leaving Shanghai. They have deen called into the midst of burning local controversy into which political, economic and domestic factors "have been fervently introduced. They have managed to preserve their technical authority, to vindicate sound methods of accountaney, and to reinforce the validity of contractual obligations. They have imperturbably coped with a mass of interrogation hurled at their devoted heads and, while adhering to their terms of reference, have not disdained to ca-operate in removing genuine misapprehensions where found to exist. They have individually deserved well of, their respective nations for their practic contribution to the process of international deliberation has been a model of its kind. It reflects the greatest credit on each of the four men engaged x working out a com= mon problem on the basis of their common professional experience. The Council may feel that the expenditure incurred is thoroughly Justified; it has given the ratepayers authoritative assurances on the ficiency of their telephone service, on the business-like capacity of the Council in granting the franchise and on the integrity of the Company in whose hands the franchise has been placed. Incidentally it has hada valuable educative influence on the public mind, for it would be dim [cult to estimate the number of bogeys, mare's nests and red liberrings which the report has politely but firmly asphyxiated. 'The Council has decided 40 put the recommendations into force' from March 1, 1936. A breathing space is thus offered to enable subscribers to adjust themselves to the new requirements. The decision is" based on the conviction that 'Shanghai is far too large a city to justify continuance of the fat rate system whereby the small user bears a good proportion of the bur-iden of the large user. 'Those who have studied the facts presented by the Experts' Report cannot boggle at this conclusion. The revelation Ithat under the now approved tariff neatly fifty per cent. of the present Htelephone subscribers are expected have lower monthly bills is itself [indicative of the inequity of the existing system, Indeed, as the discussions, summarized from the admirable precis supplied by the Press Information Officer go to show, the continuance of the fat rate system would have resulted in a loss fof subscribers and. the consequent fereation of conditions which would have gravely prejudiced the ratepayers in maintaining their obli tion to provide the Company with the contractual return on the capital involved. 'The abuses ofthe present Iystem have received striking ex-"posure in the Experts' Report and {attracted widespread attention. Further reference to them is unnecessary; it is sufficient to note how emphatically they lustrate the need for the message rate basis of charging.
The Council's decision, does not take into account the problem management fees and American income tax charges on which the company and the Council have agreed accept an arbitration award in due course. Otherwise the issue "Which has been so vigorously can assed during the year has been determined, After the exhaustive ex-Ygmination to which the Experts submitted in the Council on Monday, it is unlikely that any critic will have the hardihood to imagine that the. Council lacks information
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.