W8ILE it is difficult not to con-neet certain recent occurrences with the existence of a number of disreputable dancing halls and. bars in the neighbourhood of North Szechuen Road Extension, a case may be made out for their immediate suppression quite apart from those occurrences which have of late attracted so much attention. Some years ago a series of articles entitled ''The Seamy Side of Shanghai' drew attention to the evils existent within the borders of the International Settlement to the north lof Soochow Creek. Subsequently some measure of betterment was effected with the result that The Tirenches,"" even then existing, saw an increased activity. Dance halls were enlarged and more bars opened their doors. The evil as it was then known was not suppressed: it was merely made to move on. It was not until a year or so later that with the closing of ''The Wheel'? the first really important step of recent years was taken in exercising communal influence outside the borders of the Settlement. It was peculiarly effective on that occasion and the powerful organization responsible for maintaining it was eventually worsted; and if professional gambling exists in the outskirts of Shanghai to-day it is kept remarkably quiet. Yesterday saw the first drawing of lots to decide what brothel licences—amounting to one-fifth of the total—will be withdrawn, and the first concrete step has thus been taken towards the suppression of organized vice in this city.
It is as well that we should thus recount work done before considering the task which is now before the community. We have suppressed and are suppressing vicious practices and the localities in which they flourish, and the extinction of The Ikenches'' fis no more difficult than other attempts which have been made accomplished facts. The time has passed when moral dereliction was regarded necessary individual or communal safety valve and throughout the world strenuous efforts are being made to stamp out evils which too long have been tolerated. Shanghai, despite the fact that conditions here tend to prevent those direct methods so easy in lather cities, has made substantial progress within her borders, only to see the evil raise its unashamed head in territory just outside. The story of scenes of drunkenness, violence and roguery and tales of vice which have been published tell not one-half of the istory, but conversation with people who know will reveal state of affairs compared with which the published accounts of present conditions seem almost innocent. It is to be feared that drunkenness and prostitution are the least of the evils which have tio be combated.
Unfortunately for many of those whose influence in suppressing these haunts would be particularly invaluable, '"The Tyenches"' are but a name with unpleasant associations. Not having to pass through the locality it is not brought home to them, as to those who have to use North Szechuen Road Extension, how hideous a disgrace this quarter is to the International Settlement. But did they appreciate the terrible potentialities of evil which lurk in the side streets just off this municipal road, did they realize that young and tender children habitually pass these places and cannot but know what they are for and the people who inhabit them, that disposition to let things slide would vanish and in its place would arise a determination to cut out the cancer which is eating its way into the moral fibre of the Settlement.
Of the physical dangers which such places necessarily entail, the Commission now in Shanghai is telling, of the moral dangers no one speaks: it is hardly necessary. Yet this thing goes on at
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.