Shanghai, Mar. 26.
There was a bright hope yesterday that the strike of operatives of the Compagnie Francaise de Tramways et @Eelairage Electrigues de Shanghai, which "was assuming. the pro portions of the worst labour deadlock, the history of the company, would settled this morning. "Questioned fon the possible resumption, M. J. Favret, general manager of the conv pany, stated late last night that trams and buses may be out this morning.
Favret once again reiterated that'no negotiations had taken place. and they would be opened thie ment the strikers returned to thei jobs, The strike entered its seventh day yesterday with no. signs of a sottleiment, but It was learned in the; evening that resumption of service was but a matter of a few hours. It could not be learned, however, when ther the arrested striker had been released. This, it may be pointed out. is one of the reasons why the work= ers have not returned to their jobs earlier.
It was learned that the Chinese! chief clerk of the company had absented himself yesterday. for the first time in twenty years, a result of intimidation. it is} believed that the Toss in transportation receipts to the company resulting. from the week's suspension of trample operations is in the neigh bourhood of $200.000.
Although from a monetary aspect the strike has not reached the proportions of the previous strike. of workers "in the company, which lasted for more than a fortnight, the disgruntled workers on this eccas acted with more uniformity, indicating that the present deadlock' is on a better planned and organized scale Operators of the company's buses, trams and trolleys did not stage a gradual walk-out as on the former Occasion. but suddenly at an appointed hour ceased work, leaving trams and other vehicles abandoned all over! the French Concession and in some eases in out-of-the-way places such' fas Siccawei. In consequence it took French Trams and Buses Resume Shanghai, Mar. 22
Hundreds of contented faces were seen in the French Concession yesterday morning as people saw trams and buses in the streets for the first time In seven days, Everything, however, has two sides to it and the resumption of transportation facilities "in the Concession was a sign for. thousands of " rickshaw pullers to don a cloak of gloom as their source of easy money vanished with the end of the strike, As already reported, no negotia~ tions preceded the''return of the employees of the Compagnie Fran-caisse de Tramways ct d'Eclairage Electriques de Shanghai to work yesterday, No negotiations will be held in the near future, it was also Jearned, since no conerete demands have been presented by the workers of the tram, bus, power and water works departments of the company.
It may be recalled that on March 19, the employees of the company, excluding those of the office stati and waterworks plant, struck in the morning after their' request. for higher wages and allowances had not been answered on the spot, The management, as it was reported then, told the representatives of the workers that it would take some time fo arrive at a decision and stated that the answer would be given on March 24, Dissatisfied, the workers left their' jobs, Interviewed by the *North-China Daily News" yesterday afternoon, 'M, J, Favret, general manager of the company,' stated that the workers were {old the new conditions of service yesterday evening. He refused, however, to divulge the terms, Temporary Workers Kept On Russian temporary workers, hired by the company when the" power and water departments were left without Chinese workers, would not be dismissed immediately, Favret said yesterday, They would bbe kept until it was " definitely a certained that the Chinese had been satisfied with the new conditions, The general offices and vario\ depots of the company appeared al solutely normal yesterday, all the police and French army guards, detailed there for the duration of the dispute, being removed, The strike would have ended on Monday, when the workers agreed fo return to their" Work, but the arrest of a striker for intimidating others not to return caused the employees to refuse. The man had been arrested by uniformed members of the French police and had been held in custody "until Tuesday when was allowed 10 60, With the striker free, the em. ployees lad no other demands to make to the management at the time and promised to resume yesterday morning, This was done and buses and trams resumed operations after exactly seven days of idleness,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.