THE SHANGHAI TELEPHONE COMPANY: ITS STATIONS, EQUIPMENT, CODE NUMBERS, LABOR UNION, FINANCIAL PROBLEMS AND OFFICIALS STILL IN CHINA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500240019-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 11, 2013
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: October 21, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/11: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500240019-2
U.S. Officials Only
CONFIDENTIAL
SECORITY InFORWIWN
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
COUNTRY China
SUBJECT The Shanghai Telephone Company: Its Stations, Equipment,
Code Numbers, Labor Union, Financial Problems and
UM,.NT CONTAINS 1111,0141ATION AFFECT". Toff NATION., OC,ENst
OF Volt ITTO sT?Its. ?1,41,4 1,1 Gf IF fffl,ONS
Oagfl 71.4. Of THE U.S. COD.. ?PALluOtft. ITS T 444 ????1,51. ?Iff ?
LATION OP ITS CONIANTs TO Of pECEiri Of Lo.?ul'uoalzft ...SON IS
DATE D I sTR. a/ October 1953
NO. OF PAGES
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THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
1.
The Shanghai Telephone Company owns and operates the telephone system in Shanghai,
with seven machine Awitching offices ana one manual office.
it served approximately 95 thousand in gremter Shanghai.
Originally it was a UK firm, called the Shanghai Mutual Telephone Company. In
about 1930, it was purchased by a US firm. The equipment was in poor condition
and conversion to automatic switching was begun. This was completed in March 1932.
Three old stations - East, North, and Wet - were abandoned and ox new central
automatic stations were b
2. The new stations were: Wayside-Ward and Paoting Roads; North-North Klangse Road;
Fokien-460 Fokien Road; West-230 Medilurnt Road; Pichon-67 Route Picton; and
Montigny-the rear of this station was on the Boulevard de Montiguy, behind the
Chinese YMCA. Mont/spy and West were tLe two stations with French equipment.
There was also the Kiangse Road. This station retained Old
automatic equipment specially built as 24. V equipment.
Difficulties in inter-working occurred, as all other equipment was 48 V. Finally,
there was one old, manual station - e Station - which served the "Extra-
Settlement" area in west Shanghai. it wan on Lucerne Road, which was
unpaved, off Edinburgh Road. LuLerne had a small satellite, manual station
located on thw coruvl. uf li_as-jao and McLeod Roads. It served the Hung-jao Aerodrome
(Ira the Hung-jac residential area, All incoming calls to Lucerne and Hung-jao
were automatic, but not within the Lucerne exchange.
015 Hi I OUT I ON
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CONFIDENTIAL
.;ECLIRI TY INFORMATION
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gym Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/11 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000500240019-2
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/11: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500240019-2
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CONFIDENTIAL SECURITY INFORMATION/US OFFICIALS ONLY
3 The Shanghai Telephone Company hud no control over long distance calls; it
served only Shanghai. The toll center for long distance calls was in Chapel,
just north of Shanghai.
4.
he telenhor-- compan- had equipment for approximately
55 thousand lines at that time subscribers'
telephones totalled about over 80 ihcr.,:t. Telephone cables in the city
were for the moct c'art uc reiuiiTr) in suburbs were aboveground.
All the stations had diesel engines and electric
generators, which lied thtalled sources fo-,- emergency power. All
teic,phones were dial "Comoct" (combination receiver and transmitter).
5. The company used five digit dialing, le.u. typical telephone numbrir would
be 2-3861. The first numeial was the code number, which referreii to a
sperif', .ta4icn. The eight offles had the following code nnmbere:
Central - 1
Lucerne (and Hung-jao) -2
West -3 and
North - 4
Wayside - 5
Pichon - 7
Montigny - 8
Fokien - 9
West Station had the largest amount of equipment. West A ueed code number
Y3" and West B, "6". West A was fully equipped tor 10 thousand lines and
West B had about .three thousand lines- The code numbers and
the number of digits were not changed by the Chinese Communists. At least
thie was true during when the Communiote took Shanghai)
6. The above details,of course,indicate that all the code numbers have been used.
Therefore, if the number of lines should beincreased, there would have to be
U, change from five to six digit dialing. All the engineering planning work?
for conversion tc six digit dialing hen been completed on paper before
World War I.E. Also, the main pieces of equipment.- "registers" - already
had the necessary wiring for aix digit dialing. Therefore, little additional
.work would be necessary for conversion.
7..? When the Chinese Communists occupied Shanghai, trouble began at once, and
continued, with the labor unions. One result was a decline of discipline
among the workers Actually, the unions became a source of fear and danger.
least, there was nr. expropriation or official interference
with the telephone company, but the Communist authorities used the unions as
a weapon against the firm. In additico, the city go7ernment of Sha
rthe7.r of decision whether telephone rater would be raised or tilotri-hgl
a rate increase use refused, althougn wages had been raised. The Communists,
therefore, poseeased the power to drive the company into bankruptcy. The firm,
every pay day, was forced te borrow from the Bank of China, a governmental
institution.
B.
are Still tywin.:n. Chinese technicians, who had been with the firm
There
before the coming of the Communists, remaining with the company so that it can
be run reasonably well- i-le danger to the - e of the company from
the unions must not be forgotten, however the Chinese Communists
and the Soviets are capable of continuing to prov e e_ephone service for
Shanghai, but the service would be us of good quality as
before
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_Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/11: CIA-RDP80-00809A00050024001.95=
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/03/11: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500240019-2
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CONFIDENTIAL SECURITY INFOUNIATION/US orvIcIALs ONLY
3-
9.. The following is a list of the more important officials - all Chinese (there
are very few whites -pmForisr, wtth the firm) of the Sbanghai Telephone Company,
who may -rv Yell still be with the firm there;
?
a. (Thu Ki an Assistant Vice-President of t e cm
cnarge.
. Roosevelt Loh remained as General ?lant
. KM Hu (Hu Kung-liang) remained as Plant Sucrintendent
TL Chu became Oonstructicn Diy!.sion Superintendent,
e. sr Liu stayed Ln as Ctief Engineer.
e (fnu) Lo.was the Plant Engineer,
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