Nearly the whole stretch of rails between Shanghai and Soochow, said Japanese officer, had been' de~ stroyed by the Chinese to hinder the movements of Japanese troops and supplies, but, apart from bridges, Uttle damage had been done to the section between Soochow and Nanking, Every station on the way was damaged, Some required repairs, others will have to. be completely yebullt: At some of the more im= portant stations, temporary. structures have already been erected, Several wrecked coaches damaged by" Japanese bombing were seen on the journey. In one case the force of the explosion had blown a freight. fear upside down on one side of the track, with its wheels on. the other, Apart from the Japanese-imported Diesel-engined coaches, which operate ona fixed schedule for the benefit Japanese officers and men who have to travel between Nanking and Shanghai, a regula train service for Chinese passengers is being run between the two cities, These trains fare made of abandoned Chinese roll~ Ing stock, There fs only one class, third, and the fare. fs §2.80, Chinese passengers are sold tickets only when their bona fides have been properly established, In their retreat, the Chinese did riot destroy the telegraph or tele Phone lines, nearly the whole of which were' intact, 'Young Chinese' hawkers, crying their wares in Japanese, were busy il the bigger stations, their merchandise including homogenized mill: and other products imported from there are actually battles and ght-Jing going on—the Hsuchow district, for instance, and Amoy, These se vices are temporarily suspended, but, Jas soon' as conditions permit it, the [postal service will be opened again."
Reviewing the present position, he fsald that mails to the North China provinces are sene from Shanghai to Tientsin by the ships of the China gation" and 'Indo-China' Steam tigation companies, and to Tsingtao chiefly by Japanese merchant, vessels, although occasionally Butter= feld & Swire or Jardine, Matheson }Co, had a sailing to that port, Most of the coastal ports" were Jatill open to shipping, and mails sent to these ports went inland as far as practicable, Mail services to Chefoo took care of the Chefoo hinterland, to Swatow the Swatow hinterland, t6 [Foochow the Foochow hinterland, Jand so on. Mails to Hongkong and rantan were sent down-by any of the many available steamers. "Yunnanfu received its mall via Indo-China, while letters to the interior provinces, Jon the Chinese side of the battle-lines, were sent via Canton and these services were reported to be working very smoothly,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.