st Julie A CORRESPONDENT who signs himself "Natator" sent us recently a letter in which he refers to the drowning of two boys off the timberyard on the Yangtsepoo Road. " Who is to blame," he asks, " for this drowning fatality, and so many similar cases? Every place in the East and at home, where there is smaller community than here, has a place where people can go and swim, and the children have the opportunity of learning the arts of Neptune." After referring to the fortunate few who are shareholders in the Swimming Bath Club, he objects to children generally who want to learn to swim Sein, "lof to the tender mercies of the Huangpu, not a proper place for a youngster to acquire the art of swimming. It cannot be the want of funds which prevents the erection of a swimming bath, because Shanghai is rich enough... There are plenty of places where a public swimming bath could be erected at a compa small cost; for instance, on the shore of the Soochow Creek where the Drill Hall matshed stood, or on a couple of pontoons in the Huangpu. Thope that at the next Ratepayers' meeting either the Municipal Council or a sufficient number of public-spirited ratepayers will propose a resolution to erect such a swimming bath, which is an urgent necessity 10 prevent the frequent occurrence of drowning fatalities."
Thewant of a public swimming bath has long been felt in Shanghai, but it is not altogether so imperative as our correspondent, in his philanthropic desire to help on a good work for the youth of Shanghai, seems to think. There are much better facilities for swimming in Shanghai than in many other Eastern ports because the river is practically entirely free from dangerous animals. Crocodiles in rivers further south and sharks in many harbours take an annual toll of swimmers and non-swimmers. Nothing nere dangerous has ever been found in this river than small specimens of the Alligator Sinensis, a very lethargic variety of the alligator tribe, which is seldom seen, and has never been known to attack a human being. From people who have no personal experience the new-comer here will often hear alarming stories of eddies and undercurrents in the Huangpu which make swimming in ita very dangerous amusement, but regular swimmers know well that there is no foundation for thesealarms, and even the dreaded chowchow water off the Pootung Point is safely negotiable by a good swimmer. Many people object to the colour of the water and think that it must necessarily, from its colour, be very muddy and dirty. There is sometimes a little mud in the water after very heavy rains up country, but as a'rule the so-called muddiness is only the fine sand brought up from the Yangtze at flood tide; and at low water during neap tides the river is often almost clear, No large river flowing through an alluvial plain can be absolutely clear. There is a perfectly safe swimming ground on the Pootung side of the river for non-swimmers or learners, from Boyd & Co.'s shipyard down for half a mile or more, nor is there any danger ordinarily at the timberyard where the last drowning fatality took place, Neither in a river nor in a swimming bath is it absolutely safe for children without a grown-up person to prevent their going out of their depth before they know how to swim. There are no circumstances under which boys will not be over-venturesome, and we can probably all of us rec li incidents in our own lives when we voluntarily and heedlessly incurred dangers "from which we were only saved by good luck. There is a capital swimming-place now for children, except at high tide, on the mud-Hat on the north side of the mouth of the Soochow Creek. It is freely used by Chinese boys; and there is no reason why it should not be used by foreign children, if a policeman were put there to see that they wore drawers, which the Chinese boys do not do.
All this does not weaken our correspondent's contention that a public swimming bath would be a valuable addition to the institutions of Shanghai. We are glad to see that our correspondent thinks that the money required would be readily forthcoming; but there is more difficulty than he seems to apprehend about a site. Phe peculiar terms on which the foreshore of the Soochow Creek: is legally public property make it rather difficult for the Council, if it were so disposed, to provide a site for a swimming bath, though this no doubt could be got over if an
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.