Oct. 1.
THREE weeks ago all eyes were tured to Japan, which had been visited by the most terrible calamity in modern history. Now there is a danger that the public mind, proverbially forgetful, is unable to bring the same imagination to help it to estimate the awful consequences of the earthquake. The earthquake has cease ed to be a news event, yet the working parties from H. M. S. Hawkins in Yokohama last week were stumbling over, walking over piles of dead bodies. The ruined town reeks of that indescribable, but to all have experienced it, utterly unforgettable corpse smell. And as with the exception of survivors the memory has faded, so Shanghai, which gave so ungrudgingly to assist the foreign sufferers at the first realization of the disaster, will not, we are sure be deaf to the needs of the many homeless foreigners either in Japan or passing through Shanghai en route' for Home. In'
Kobe, where are a number of these refugees, the work of lief is scarcely able to cope with the situation. Numbers of foreigners who left for Home in the P. & O. S. Mantua a few days ago have arrived in Shanghai with very scanty clothing for the cold weather of Europe and England at this time of the year. Many of them could be seen with their scanty belongings tied up in newspaper. The British Women's Association Foreign Emergency Relief Committee, which has shown such a high degree of initiative from the start, hag issued a fresh appeal to Shanghai residents. Inevitably the Committee is faced with the difficulty of providing what assistance it can at the-shortest possible notice. It is not until ships are nearing Shanghai that details are. received of needy cases. Many are in a hopeless state of mind, unable to think of any way of helping themselves. The latest reports from Japan indicate that there are no possible prospects for many of these people who have lost everything. Their most pressing need is the supply of clothing and if possible old, but serviceable suit cases. The need for material assistance of all kinds is anything but over. It continues to be most bitter and is likely to do so for' some weeks, and we make an earnest appeal on behalf of these, sufferers. All gifts in money or in ismd should be sent to the Committee, at 12 Kiukiang Road.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.