世界日報
- Beijing Telephone Bureau Advertisement
- Urgent Notice from the Beijing General Telephone Bureau
- First Stage Suspends All Performances
The September 27, 1926 Shijie Ribao carried notices connecting everyday communications and entertainment with payment and supply problems. The telephone bureau described removing more than 200 overdue subscribers’ connections to meet demand for new installations. A second notice announced a change to silver-dollar collection for calls between Beijing and Tongxian, Xiangshan, and Tangshan (湯山). Deji Trading Company announced that films had failed to arrive in Beijing, prompting a temporary suspension of screenings at the First Stage and cancellation of its original contract.
This edition covers the three supplied readable excerpts from the September 27, 1926 Shijie Ribao page. It is a partial reading, not a transcription of the entire page. OCR cannot reliably preserve article boundaries or wording; tile edges split columns, a library stamp obscures part of the upper date line, and heavy ink limits the right-edge medicine advertisements. The first excerpt has medium reading confidence; the other two have high confidence. The captured archive retrieval failed, so the translations rely on the supplied transcriptions.
Translation
Beijing Telephone Bureau Advertisement
Available telephone numbers are exceptionally scarce, yet applications for installation continue to pour in. To clear outstanding arrears and meet the needs of new subscribers, we have been progressively removing telephone connections from Southern Bureau subscribers who have failed to pay their monthly rental charges despite repeated reminders. More than 200 subscribers have had their connections removed, with approximately three months’ rental charges outstanding on each number.
Urgent Notice from the Beijing General Telephone Bureau
Effective September 1, Year 15 of the Republic, we will change to collecting all charges for calls between Beijing and Tongxian, Xiangshan, and Tangshan (湯山) in silver dollars.
First Stage Suspends All Performances
We hereby give notice: We, Deji Trading Company, had been showing films at the First Stage. As the new film attractions have not arrived in Beijing, we are temporarily suspending screenings and cancelling the original contract. We hereby make this declaration.
Context
Arrears collection and scarce telephone access
The telephone bureau treated overdue rentals as a problem of access as well as revenue. Applications continued to arrive while available numbers were exceptionally scarce, so it linked the removal of persistent non-payers’ connections directly to meeting new demand. Repeated reminders preceded the removal of more than 200 Southern Bureau connections, each with roughly three months’ rent outstanding. The notice thus reveals a concrete allocation mechanism: reclaiming existing connections was intended to make room for new subscribers. Payment enforcement determined who could retain a scarce service and offered the bureau a way to accommodate people waiting for installation.
Silver-dollar collection in a mixed-currency economy
Beijing Tourism's retrospective monetary history explains that dayang meant silver dollars and that copper coins also circulated, with an exchange ratio against silver dollars that varied over time and between places. Against that background, the telephone bureau's September 1 change specified a common payment currency for calls between Beijing and Tongxian, Xiangshan, and Tangshan (湯山). This mattered because copper and silver payments were connected by a changing conversion rate. The requirement can therefore be understood as standardizing the currency accepted on these routes, although the bureau did not state its accounting motive. The notice specified how charges would be collected without giving new tariff amounts.
Film deliveries and a major theatre's business
A 2019 Beijing Tourism retrospective describes the First Stage as a three-storey theatre accommodating approximately 2,500 spectators. That scale gives commercial weight to Deji Trading Company's short announcement: a large venue's film programme depended on the arrival of the films it intended to show. Deji linked their non-arrival to two distinct decisions, temporarily suspending screenings and cancelling the original contract. The supply interruption therefore affected both the programme available to audiences and the company's contractual arrangements. Calling the screening suspension temporary while cancelling the agreement shows that a pause in performances could accompany a more definite break in the arrangement supporting them.
Original
北京電話局廣告
電話號額異常缺乏而掛號請裝者仍紛至沓來茲為清理積欠供給新用戶需要起見將南局用戶拖欠月租屢催不繳者陸續撤回計有二百餘戶每號積欠月租費約三個月左右
北京電話總局緊要通告
北京與通縣香山湯山間傳話費定於十五年九月一日起一律改收大洋
第一舞台全歇
啓者德記商行原第一舞台開演電影茲因新奇片未能到京暫行停演將原合同撤銷特此聲明