Jan. 20, Our correspondent who wrote yesterday asking that the polling stations to-morrow and Friday might be kept open until six o'clock, as otherwise he and many others will be debarred from voting, will see to-day that the Land Regulations are explicit on the point. Doubtless when those Regulations were framed, if was easier to get out in office hours, and there was certainly much less distance to go from any business house to the polling station. In these circumstances two remedies may be suggested. First, that the municipal authorities should open a third polling station—for the distance apart of the one on the Bund and the one in Broadway is hardly enough to cover the needs of all ratepayers in the business quarter. Secondly, and this we would urge most strongly, that. all British employers should make a point of allowing their employees time off within the specified hours to register their votes. Business is not, unfortunately, so overwhelming that this small concession should prove impossible on one or other of the voting days. And the danger of a split vote is such that it is of the utmost importance that all British voters should attend and signify their wishes. Tt is certain tha' German or Austrian physically capable of getting to the polls will fail to record his vote—and that, be it remembered, is practically sure to striking out every other name but that of the German didate.
The fact cannot unfortunately be gain said that the Japanese candidature is not as generally welcomed as it might be. We regret to have to speak thus plain ly, but the time is not one for veiled allusion. The obstructions, real or imaginary, which are alleged to have been placed in the way of all trade with Tsingtao except Japanese since the siege. have created an unfavourable impression: and whether such reports are true or not, the effect is. of course the same. More recently, a letter, which is at the least to he called unguarded, has appear-8 fr
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.