At this time of day it is rather difficult to understand the prejudice existing in' other years against the grant by the Municipal Council of a Long Service Medal to the Volunteers. We believe it had something to do with the fact that any medal so granted would not be the award of any nationality, and so the idea, long since talked of, has not come to anything until now. At length, however, it is an accomplished fact, and we believe that the majority of people in Shanghai, Volunteers, ex-service men and others will applaud the decision. Service in the Volunteer Corps may not offer the opportunity of doing anything gloriously. heroic, in fact the average mam during a term of service extending over many years, sees probably. but a very few hours of what could be called active service. Yet all the time he is doing work for the community, and it ought to be re~ cognized. The war has taught us the value of that particular kind of service. There were men who for deeds of gallantry and often. rashness, lasting sometimes not very much more than a few minutes or two or three quarters of an hour, won decorations, and they deserved them. There were also others, hard-working conscientious fellows who never faltered and never failed in their duty—extraordinarily valuable men to an army—yet to whom the chance did not come of earning special distinction. To these also were decorations awarded, and nobody can deny that they were well earned. In a great many cases long service in, the Volunteer Corps corresponds to the work these latter did in the army, and is just as deserving of acknowledgement. There is precedent for the Council granting a medal in the case of the Volunteer Fire Brigade, for five years' service, and it should have been followed long since for the S. V. C.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.