The following are a few notes by Lt.- Col. T. B. Trueman, 0.0.£., on the origin and development of the scheme, which had for its object a permanent: head guarrers and drill hall for the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, Prior to January 1, 1920, the Volunteer Corps had no home, only a temporary lodging in some godown rented by the Council during the months of February and March' in each year.
The annual training was then concentrated into one month for the infantry and six weeks for the mounted: branches.
When the Corps marched back to the Bund after the inspection parade on the Race, Course, the Commandant used to say what good chaps we were and thanked us for giving him such splendid opportunities on Saturday afternoon to practise the prescril battalion drill and combined training; even back to the period of the old British Infantry "squares."
This annual good-by on the Bund seemed, even to the younger of us, a wrong idea, and many times the suggestion was made that if we only had a Dril} Hall that could be called our own, we could have a wonderful time in learning the intricacies of drill, particularly during the autumn and winter afternoons when out-door games were not possible.
In the course of time it happened that the Council decided to build a market and a drill hall on the site where the old Maloo market in Nanking Road. Many were the visions of hope we entertained when this scheme became known, and these were not im-
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