Oct. 11.
The Chinese Lepers Mission is a charity which commands the respect and support of humanitarian persons who feel for the disabled and miserable leper whose malady once made them veritable pariahs but who today can be cured and made whole. There was a time when 'a leper was shunned as something unclean, whose very health carried with' it the omen of death. To-day, we know that 5 {leprosy is a curable disease and physicians and social workers are fighting prejudice and ignorance, in a constant battle to bring curative measures to the lepers and to prevent others from contracting an unspeakably loathsome disease. Too much cannot be said in praise of this work or of the men and women who devote themselves to it.
It is most unfortunate therefore that those who manage the Lepers Mission should have been foreed to resort to a Coney I land and a so-called "Popularity Contest" to finance their activ ties. There is surely a more dignified and safer "method of finding the money for suck "a glorious work, Had this enter-ise been altogether successful, one might have passed it by as fan aberration of the over-ami tious, who able organizations, but the "Popularity Contest," has aroused so much criticism among decent Chinese and foreigners and has led to so much unsportsmanlike gossip and recrimination that we can only express the hope that no one will attempt such a thing again in Shanghai, lest it reflect unfavourably ea all charities.
In the first place the "Popularity Contest" was nothing of the sort. It was a contest in salesmanship. The person selling the most tickets would win the car. The most popular young ladies might not even be able to sell one ticket, there is such a thing as shyness in Chinese womanhood. Finally, two of the contestants reached the top through sheer salesmanship. Apparently, the second on the list was assisted by the third on the list, who made a present of her tickets. We cannot sil in judgment over this procedure. We do not know whether it was the thing to do or not. 'The committee in charge, however, accepted the tickets and they' were counted. The first Indy protested against her defeat with the result that the question was submitted to orb: tration. The arbitrators conted of three lawyers, Messrs. Kiang, Rodger and Preston, They awarded the motor-car to Miss Elsie Kwok and held that Miss Yun was within her rights to present her tickets to Miss Kwok. There the matter should have ended. Neither Miss Kwok nor Miss Vu, the protestant, are benefited by the public acknowledgment of their ability as saleswoman. Miss Kwok is the daughter of Mr. Kwok Bew of Wing On; Miss Vu is the daughter of Mr. Vu Ya-ching, Both must be regarded as pub-lie-spirited young ladies who sold tickets to assist the Lepers Mission and not because they: might thereby win a-motor-car. Although there may have bee some misunderstanding when the vote was first counted, sportsmanship demands that the itrators' award should be accepted as final. The little people who talk of hiring lawyers and taking the matter into court should be voted the most unpopular persons in Shanghai. From the standpoint of our judgment of Chinese sense of fair-play. it can only be said
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.