Take one instance: On Saturday night, 123 boats were arranged side by side across the river and there is now a bridge of coats connecting the Island with this bank. That bridge happens to be below the godowns of the Butterfield and Swire, and the Japanese lines. A request to the Foreign Office to let cargo boats go through at stated hours, or some other arrangement that would not interfere with military operations is most likely to be met with the answer that military" matters are beyond the province of the F.O. A gentle push with, the nose of the Woodcock between two of the boats making the bridge would give w passage if needed without any harm, to the. boats, and the mere knowledge that such a thing. would happen if the Chinese authorities. ignored the consular request, would undoubtedly. bring an immediate answer. If there is no gunboat here, your own correspondent might as wel] ask the authorities to open the bridge as H.B.M. Consul. That is hardly a dignified position for His Majesty's representative in this port. It is hardly credible that a Commanding Officer who knew the situation would! give such orders as have just: been given.. There is a good tale in Admiral Fisher's Life which tells about his desire to scrap all these small boats. Some one asked what would be done in the river ports in China and was answered by a Fisherian bombshell ending up with the statement that he, good man, did not know why gunboats were needed to "potter about between pagodas: and sampans." If England could get a few more Fishers, it would be a good harguin to do so at the price of these smallest boats of the navy. But to have them and deliberately not use them about the only thing they can do, is certainly not the mark of a Fisher.
A Soviet trade' representative, states the "Hongkong Daily Press" has arrived in Canton to open trade relations between': Russia and South China.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.