T= transportation problem in the Settlement arising out of the strike of the workers of the Tramway Company was aggravated yesterday when the entire Chinese staff and operatives of the China General Omnibus Company failed to report for work, causing. a complete disruption in the bus service.
"The absence of trams and buses in the Settlement affect approximately 600,000 residents of the Settlement who utilize these two services as their sole means of transport. Office contingents yesterday morning were chagrined to find that they would have to use the slower means of transport, the rickshaw, or walk. In consequence a number of members of local office staffs were late in arriving at their offices. Rickshaw coolies did a thriving business in consequence.
As in the case of the Tramway Company the deadlock has for its background a political significance. An official of the Tramway Company on Monday would have settled the strike had it not been for political influence, it was learned on good authority.
Twenty-three demands have been presented by the Chinese employees of the bus company to their employers, but it is significant that not a single one concerned the immediate earnings and allowances of the men, indicating that the strike was not enforced to secure the usual additional wages or increase in rice allowance, as reported in some Chinese and one foreign paper.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.