We exclaim against the reactionary press of Shanghai. We bit terly rebuke the utterances of every: so-called liberal who would per suade us that to rid the house of rats, it is necessary to burn it down. We keep a jealous watch against every influence that would undermine the rule of sanity and, above all, that would ruthlessly destroy at a single stroke all that has been patiently built up for weary years in the name of King and Empire, But what of the snake that writhes in the dark, its ven-omens fangs bared to strike at the very loyalty of the troops themselves? Consider the latest epecimen, styling itself "The Devil's Tattoo," and fortunately scotched by Tommy's undying reverence and love for the ideals he serves. its name implies, it rails against the spectacle of which all Shanghai, independent of nationality, is proud, and after paying its respects to "the old China Hand," the "longest bar in the world," ete. in no mea-jared terms, goes' on to ask, naively, "Why should the birthday of English king of well known foreign extraction, who never did a real day's work in he life be more important than the birthday of any working class child?"—Receiving no answer, the leaflet goes on to recite the numerous "crimes" of that, king, who, it would persuade us, is responsible for all the woes this earth has known, including the uncertainty of the weather. Just a few more quotations, ere we inform the reader of a most delightful donouenent. "The Shanghai Doings is a sort of preliminary Tate too to the Imperialist Devil Tattoo f International War againat work ing class Russia. We demand in the form of increased wages money squandered on auch barabario diaplaye as the Shanghai Tattoo. Send this parasite figurehead and his idle family who draw over £1 Million from the State together swith his corrupt decadent aristo-racy and bloodthirsty Imperialiste TO HELL. We oppose British troops being in China.... We mand immediate return (Shanghai Defence Force tionary Soldiers Committee).
Now observe the effect of all this on a small portion of the "Shanghai Defence Force Revolutionary Soldiers." We are reliably informed that an English-speaking Chinese who tempted to distribute this leaf-Tet at the Mohawk Road Barracks, was welcomed with open arms, The Tommies apologized profusely for their inability, to hgo him tu his request for "imreturn Home," but did the next best thing. They taught him the words of the first stanza "Ged Save the King," and, as soon" as he was letter-perfect, stood bin fon his head and made him sing it Reaven Knows how many: times: Navehty, naughty imperiatistal:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.