To the Editor of the "Norra-Cuina Dairy News."
Sim,—In your issues of the 7th and "9th "instant "Dulce ct Decorum" and "In Memoriam" refer again to the subject of a British School as a war memorial, and complain that Shanghai is sadly lacking in "public spirit." "Dulee et Decorum" seems more particularly inclined to blame "Those in power? for an unsatisfactory state of affairs. Evidently neither of these gentlemen has lived for any length of time in one of our smaller crown colonies, 2nd I would urge them not to give way to despondency for, comparatively speaking, their lives are cast in pleasant places. That Britons abroad should be somewhat indifferent to the needs of their own nationals in the matter of education is not-surprising,.nor should blame be assigned to anyone in particular. Tt is a national characteristic! It has been observed that nothing empties the House of Commons so fast as those occasions when the Minister for Education rises to make his annual statements on education; and no civilized people leave so much education to private enterprise as the British.
It was only to be expected that the suggestion to found a school for senior boys, ran on typical British lines, should be turned down by the Committee, for it was appointed to report on a suitable memorial for a community which is international and made up of citizens of various shades of colour.
The appeal for a school, if even issued, should be addressed, through the proper channels, to British communities only, to, all of purely British origin from Singapore to Vladivostok. Till such an appeal has been made and has failed. I decline to accept the assertion that our fellow-countrymen—whether they take rank with "Those in power," or move in humbler spheres—are so immersed in "trade and sport." that they are not alive to the claims of citizenship and to a matter that intimately concerns British prestige and British interests in the East.
There are some axiomatic facts, Sir, connected with local education, that cannot be too frequently, or too strongly, emphasized (1) British communities in the East are among the wealthiest to be found anywhere.
(2) There is no British school in China worthy of the name, open to the average British boy and capable of undertaking his higher education to the age of 18 or 19.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.