And it ig not as if this over-reg! mentation had brought any Improve ment in their living conditions, Ca the feontrary, all the public services, utilifies, communications and so forth are [decidedly worse run than they used to be. Railway travel, for instance, has' deteriorated "enormously, former days the. railways in. North (China—except during the occasional wars. of the Tuchuns—was com paratively comfortable and well run, Today travel by rail-is a kind of purgatory, leaving out of account the fair ebanee one runs of being. Involved ina wreck on some of the Tu former days one could always sure of booking a sleeper fora Tonger Journey; today that is quite impossible. "And even for the short Journey between the two main cities for the north, -Pelping' and. Tientsin, copie are Tucky, not. merely if they get a seat, but even if they manage fond. standing room in' the cot rider of a Ist-class.eatria 'While a journey to the interior, Hralyuantu' of Kalfengta, for instance [which T Believe are still within the "occupied territory"—formerly qui a simple affair. now requires preper Yon and. organization as it" for expedition to central Asi, presuming one has been fain the thousand and one military fand other permits necessary for such journey, Thousands Wait for Telephones The telegraph and telephone ser vices have deteriorated correspondingly. In the latter, for instance, there is a waiting fist of several thousand applicants for telephones and it seems likely that they will have to wait quite a few years, to Jgct their telephone. Even the formerly efficient Post Office has: also been palsied by the same stroke of Jover-changing regulations. The latest [brilliant invention is that each pro= vince of north China will issue its own stamps with its own particular provincial surcharge, which stamps Jean only be used for letters posted in that province. Highly pleasing 10 the philatelist, no doubt, but exceed. citizen, ingly irritating to. the ordinary
Needless to say, the sfunicipality has established a special sanitary department to clean the city and teach the Peiping householder how to keep his house clean. Nevertheless the hhutungs are untidier than ever, specially in the southeastern section of the city, which is the Japanese quarter, and one has to pick. one's way laboriously over hillocks of crab shells, eel skins, fish heads and cablage stalks. which have been thrown into the middle of the roadway.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.