To the Editor of the "Norta-Curna Datty News."
Sir,—May I be allowed to question the fairness of the conditions under which a Long Service Medal now to be granted to members of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps.
In the first place, this medal is to be granted "for service in the S.V.C. onl; Is not this somewhat unfair to the many men who, after considerable service in the Corps, left them to put in four years action service at the front? It would have been, I venture to suggest, at Jeast an act of grace on the part of the Council if war service had been allowed to count towards the necessary period of service.
In the second place, service in any other corps is not to count. Is this not again unjust to the skilled soldier who transfers his valuable services from some unit elsewhere to the Volunteer Corps in Shanghai? The percentage of men who remain East for a longer period than 10 years must be a small one and experienced men should surely be encouraged by all means possible to join the volunteers.
"For \good service" might be a better inscription for the medal than for long service." A man joins a Volunteer Corps from a sense of duty to the community, whether this community is in Shanghai, Singapore or Timbuctoo. Wherever he goes he carries this senso of duty with him.
And I hardly think that this broad sense of duty is fostered as it should be by the somewhat self-centred and parochial spirit shown by the 8.V.C.
I am, etc., Shanghai, July 16.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.