From time to time during the past two months Shanghai has been treated to a little political oratory from the M.P.'s in her midst. For some reason or another these speeches have not the same flavour or interest thab speeches by politicians in other countries possess, and it is really difficult to work up enthusiasm for them. For one thing they contain practically na constructive argument, but so far as can' be gathered they are solely oc* cupied in denouncing some big+ wig or another and calling upon' the people to arise and fight hint to the bitter end. This might almost be described as an accepted formula, and once it has been' uttered the only thing remain; ing is to announce how patriotic the orator and his friends hayd been in leaving Peking for Shanghai, where, of course, they ave engaged' in ai desperate struggle against the militarists. In aut the oratory we have perused during these weeks we have never come across anything ilkd 2. convincing reply to the rude things some of the Street Unions, for instance, -said about the fraction of Parliament which migrated to Shanghai, but there has merely been a reiteration of the plea that the people should put their trust in the true patriots, i.e., the Shanghai M.P.'s. Two perfectly good reasons may be advanced for this state: of affairs, Firstly, Parliament is a very young institution in this country and 10 or 11 years of it, many of them spent in retirement cly the M.P.'s, are hardly enough! to enable the finer Parliamentary arts toe be developed. The second reason is that China has not been' specially fortunate in her M.P.'s, and there are not many distingnished men among them. So wa should not expect anything mord than -we are getting.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.