To the Editor of the Nortx-Cuixa Dany News.
Sin,—-Some curiosity has been expressed as ty whether your correspondent *L," who wrote a Plea for Individual Defence" is a man or a woman. For the credit of my sex [sincerely hope it was not written by a woman, The reasoning in it is so palpably weak, and the selfishness 0 ji tensely strong. 'L" begins by saying the S.V.0, should have every support, and then proceeds to advocate that married men should defend individually hearths and homes. wore eliminated from the Volunteer Cor; I fear it would suffer to " considerable extent as many capable members at the present moment happen to be married men. The motive attributed to bachelors for ing the S.V.C. is anything but flatts ing, according to "L," who says it because "they are eager for a lark and a fight." The "lark" resolves itself into some downright hard work during the trai ing season, and the chance of a "fight" is not always so imminent as at the present moment so that those arguments are absurd far us the regular volunteers are concerned. L, is perfectly right in stating thst aman must first look after the safety of his wife and family" and that "it is a duty he does not like to entrust to anyone else." The Inst phrase applies to many ther conditions of life besides the present ion in Shanghai which if dealt with L," proposes would make sid havoc with civilised life. For instance one does not always call in a professional nurse because one particularly likes it, but because it is the wisest and most sensible thing to do. It is to be hoped that all the men in Shanghai, benedicts and bachelors, who are physically able to assist in protect ing the Settlement will use their commonsense and remember that Union is strength" and give their services to sume of the organised bodies which have been formed for the general protection of lives and property. By doing so they will obviate the chance of being considered cowardly as it is only natural to argue that the vicinity of women and children is usually the safest place. As for the wisdom of placing the lives of the Intter in jeopardy for the sake of mere goods and chattels there is nothing. to be said. Humanity cries out aguinst it. Whilst the powers that be appear to be doing everything that can be done for the protection of the settlement, ""L" displays very questionable taste in supposing that the best possible judgment will not be brought to bear before any of the inhabit ants receive the signal to desert their homes. Considering the fact that a largo namber of Chinese soldiers are within reachable damaging distance of Shanghai, and the behaviour of their confreres in other parts of the country, L" shows an amazing want of foresight in taking it for granted that we will have the riff-raff deal with.
Tam, ete.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.