From the material now being collected for the forthcoming conference at Geneva on the trac in women and children, it would seem that—
problem—the traffic here is negligible apart from the Chinese side of the ud well within the competence of the local authorities to handle. The general question of the lapse of
carries in Shanghai no special signi-foreign women into a life of ill-fame ficance. 'It is essentially one of the accidents of urban life' to be discerned in any large city, but to be treated by the ordinary measures of civic remedial endeavour. Where Shanghai presents a peculiar problem In sheltering a large refugee community, the victims of political misfortune on a grand scale. That community specially feels the impact of dire economic strain which drives the weaker element of its womanhood to desperate straits. And the normal Fesources of Shanghai are not adequate to cope with the problem. For this reason it is well, while leaving. the benevolent task of reclamation 10 charitable organizations, to concentrate '9n the practical effort of prevention, Funds are required to reinforce the activities of the Russian' Women's League anc similar bodies. It cleanly a case for international sistance, Soviet Russia is now a mem ber of the League: she isnot likely look with much sympathy on the victims of her own rise to power. 'That does not debar the rest of the world from uniting in a work of real humanitarian aim, for the sake of good conscience and constructive citizenship. Broadly, the plight of Rus: sian girls born in' Shanghai due to an intensified operation of the same factors which are causing the general unemployment. among certain other foreigners here. It 1 mainly economic in its character. Against indigenous labour these feirls find it increasingly dimerist to Compete, in the unskilled or semi-[skilled occupations. A lack of educational facilities, combined with the accessibility of urban tractions of not always desirable kind, renders it dificult for them to adapt them= selves to a normal mode of livelihood—even if they can perchance secure it. They inevitably drift social disaster. Their community is not wealthy enough to combat these dangerous influences unaided. should be helped by funds for improving the education of ts. girls, thereby giving them in themselves more resources for resistance to moral and mental deterioration and training them for skilled occupations wherein they can earn a devout wage and preserve the self-respect to which they are as entitled as any other citizen of Shanghai. Ti is to be hoped that this practical aspect of Shanghai's difficulties will be put before the League and, also, that the authorities here will duly' consider the possibility of extending their own financial aid in the light of the facts now revealed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.