Dec. 30.
We would draw earnest attention to the announcement made elsewhere to-day of the sending of a lighter, with whatever stores people may be disposed to give, tothe Russians at Woosung. The lighter is to leave the Customs jetty at noon to-morrow and she will be placarded so that people with packages to send may know where to place them. At this time of year a great many presents of eatables are made, more, very often, than people know what to do with, and it is thought that this way of disposing of the surplus will be generally approved; for there are many people who would like to send things to the ships, but do not know how to dose. There is unfortunately no doubt that the state of the Russians on the boats at Woosung is not only piteous: they are in great need. They have now been there for over three weeks and their supplies are running low. Their drinking water is exhausted and they are drinking Yangtze water. We are sure that the foreign community of Shanghai will not leave them in want, at this season of the year of all others.
But we again emphasize that the major question concerning them has still to be answered. There is a danger of its passing into the region of the everybody's business which is no nobody's business. From time to time public appeal is made on the refugees' behalf, and we are happy to think that it never is made in vain. But this state of affairs cannot go on indefinitely. The unanimous opinion of Chinese Government, Consular Body and Municipal Council is that they cannot be permitted to land. There does not appear to be work available for them and Shanghai cannot support so large a number of people as pensioners, apart altogether from the others who would inevitably be attracted and could not logically be excluded. But if the refugees may not land here, neither can they go elsewhere." No other place would admit them. The problem is merely pushed on elsewhere. And the notion of leaving them cooped up on board boats, of which some are no bigger than the average launch, for week after week.through the goldest weather of the year, is "altogether repugnant. Meanwhile it is to be remembered that refugee Russians are scattered all over the Far East. We have thousands in Shanghai. There are thousands more throughout the north and in Koreas and Manchuria. Those who have managed to find work are the merest fraction, and even with a big trade revival there could never be sufficient employment for all. Many of them have a mute but eloquent claim on Allied sympathy in having fought in Russia's armies before she turned Bolshevik. The community of refugees constitutes a claim on civilization which cannot be ignored.
The only feasible solution is to treat that claim as a whole by means of international co-opera tion. At many doors there is the same problem that Shanghai has at Woosung. Food and clothing are distributed as best may be. But this is only a palliative. The root of the evil remains untouched. What is needed is a con-carted effort to induce the Governments at home to help in parcelling out these people where there is work for them. There are two possible ways of providing for them. The one is to obtain from the Bolshevik Government a guarantee of safe conduct if they will return to their own iand. The difficulty here not so much the guarantee as to find work for them in Russia if they go back, which, incidentally, they vow they will not do. The alternative is to plant them out in other lands where labour is needed. Some of the South American Republics are said to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.