The policy of maintaining the Con pany's physical property in good operating condition was continued. During the year expenditures for or-mary. maintenance and repairs amounting to approximately $1,722,000 were made, and, in addition, the Company appropriated $1,500,000 from current earnings for the property retirement reserve, which, after. pro= viding for property' retirements durin the year, increased the balance in the reserve to §10,289,32547. Improv ments and additions. to the property to meet the new business "of the Company required the expenditure of approximately $1,887,000 during the As of December 31, 1938, the Company had outstanding commitments luggregating approximately $5,350,000 for plant equipment. on order in connection with a new 15,000 kilowatt ugh pressure and high temperature unit with boiler and auxiliaries the {installation of which was temporarily sponded following the 1937 incident. To meet such commitments, which were made in foreign currencies prior to the 1937 incident, and for other corporate purposes of the Compan; foreign currencies were purchased, While such foreign currencies wore heavily drawn upon in 1937 and 1998 uring the period of reduced earnings, nevertheless the balance remaining adequate to meet the before mentioned commitments. The difference between the cost in Chinese dollars of stich foreign currencies and the Chinese dollar equivalents atthe Fates prevailing, when payments were made during 1938, and on the balance unexpended at December 31, 1938, has been credited to Foreign Exchange Reserve. addition to the foregoing, during the year $530,557.79 was expended upon extraordinary maintenance and rehabilitation work upon property damaged during the 1937 hostilities which, with $15,638.15 incurred dur= ing 1987, makes total expenditures of $609,190.04 for the repair or replace ment of property: damage. There also written off during 1097 and 19%
$201,562.55, representing the Value of the property destroyed which was not renewed oF replaced. AIL major re= pairs to put ¥ of the Company into good working order have been completed, and the physical condition of the system may now be regarded as back to normal.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.