Feb. 10.
The great patriotic demonstration at the Town Hall last night hears witness how deeply Rritons in Shanghai feel their oneness in the struggles of the Empire and how earnestly they wish to take their part in them: Tu a sense, such evidence was unnecessary, for it has already been seen in the sending Home of volunteers for the fight and in the alacrity with which the many various national funds have been supported. But the British community found in this formation of a branch of the Patriotic League of Britons Overse ion of publicly testi devotion such'as must appeal to every heart and re-echo in_many lands. As Sir Everard Fraser said, in a noble speech which none of his hearers will ever forget, six months of war have changed us all. We have realized, as at first it was impossible for the somewhat easy-going Bri-
453, tish temperament to realize, the bitter and relentless nature of the foe with whom we have to cope. We see now with what infinite minuteness in detail he has, during forty years, prepared for this struggle and is prepared to wage it. We know that the issue is the British Empire or the German Empire; and we understand at last the utter fallacy of pretending that we can make war upon the German Government as a thing apart from the German people. A nation is against us, and as a nation we must fight not only in Europe but throughout the world. Of that feeling the Patriotic League is a true symbol. And as Sir Havilland de Sausmarez happily said of the proposed gift of a man-of-war, that the steel will grow rusty and old but the name will endure, 80 the day will come when the urgency for which the League is now formed will be " thing of the past: but the name and spirit of it will endure, the essence of our kinship in the great Empire that claims us her sons and defenders.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.