*To the Editor of the "NortH-Cxiva Dany News"
Sim.—I have, only been in Shanghai about four months but I wish to Place on record -that I still find it Amusing. It is a funny place indeed!
Arriving here, still warm from the arms of coddling Mather Europe, still very raw and hide-bound from a the traditions and the "Thou Shalt Not's" of that rather. severe-visage ~oversprude parent, I was cheered to learn from the community that had preceded me, that I was about to enter on the threshold of life, that here in Shanghai a larger freedom was the reward for all those who had ad the pluck to escape from the anxious guardianship of the prim old dame under whose schooling those wim -I had left behind me still What a big man I felt myself to Be the first few months in Shanghai, ase drank my whisky and soda, whereas before brown beer had been my usual evening refreshment, and I broke out with cigars, and taxicabs home after an entertainment, whereas in the little town I came from I never smoked a cigar in my life and always walked home when the trams had stopped running, But, now has come the denouement of this so-called freedom appertaining to what must surely rank as one of the world's most modern cities, i.e. Shanghai's Foreign Settlement, My sad disillusionment happened on Saturday evening last When I tried to enter the dining and dence room of a certain Hotel wearing the indecent attire of a Palm Beach suit and a cricket-shirt without a tie, petent Chinese and Japanese are working towards that end. Chins does not desire war and will not fight unless forced into it. It is pre sumed that the Japanese do no favour war if they can secure the s2 ceptance of their rigid terms, without fighting. It is much cheaper tha' way. The Central Government has done its utmost to/localize the en counters and refrained from using its air and land forces in the defence of Pingtsin area. Had these participated. the initial success of the Japanese could not have been obtained so nor so quickly. The nob participation of the Chinese air force had cost China dearly in lives of soldiers and civilians for Japanese air squadrons were ruthless in bombing and machine-gunning the Chinese besides acting as eyes of their infantry and artiller; The 29th Army subjected to overhead attack. There is not the slightest doubt' that China sincerely desires peace, but will Japan meet her, say even one third of the way?
Your excellent journal and some of its foreign contemporaries have pleaded for a peaceful liquidation of the present trouble and it is fair to assume that these reflect the crystallized opinion of the non-Japanese foreign community, but I regret that so far no tangible suggestions for peace—firm offers for peace—have been evident emanating from the for-Cign community. I do not think the judicious offering of good offices would be at variance with the manifested indisposition on the part of the' Japanese to extraneous interference which is applicable only to officious busy-bodies. The well-intended friendly intervention of interested parties should be suffered by all means, The Management was kindly courteous but relentlessly firm. I I: wished to have a table with a view of the dance-floor I must wear some some sort of a tie, which, however, order to minimize my inconvenience they offered to lend me. I provided myself with a black bow tie and feeling very Bohemian in my conglomerate dress 1 proceeded to cosy little table in the shadows but just on the edge of the circle of the Gance-floor and there I. sat for a few ours immensely enjoying the music, of happiness of Shanghai's elite €nd the sight of the whirling figures chasing the coquette of rose-perfumed romance.
However—to get.back to my grouch—as the evening wore on I became more and more astonished to see what had "passed muster" according to the requirements of the management in regard to. dress. To be sure each gentleman had a tic, but what a variety of ties had sneaked in! Black bows and mourning ties, white ties and' variegated daz~ lers with big round spots, Then what coats and pants! 1 confine myself to the criticism of gentlemen's Wear, of course! There were monkey ifckets and black pants, and almost All sorts of masculine out-door attire Japan has freely played Chinese against Chinese so I may be excused for playing not "one foreign state against another" but for attempting to play all foreign states against "one. However I will play fair by forewarning you to be careful of what Tam about to say. All I ask is that you think it over carefully. China is only one of the markets of your country and perhaps your government and people do not attach much importance to it, but to you who are here, this is your market. A market full of potentialities of development and one that had taken your predecessors decades and decades to build up. Are you going to stand still and nonchalantly see it destroyed without doing anything to prevent it? I know you are only too prone to hold meetings and pass resolutions calling your home government to protest against any insignificant regulation of the Chinese Government, but here some terrific thing is ha pening and you stand like one in a stupor. Why the silence and inactivity Shanghai, Aug. 9.
***Comment on page 4 except over-coats and short pants. And yet I could not get through on a Shanghai August: night to indulge in the heated exercise of dancing dre: sed in a clean white outfit and opehnecked cricket shirt It made me think of some of the summer dances I had attended back in the dear old country of repression and restriction from which I hail There, after summer suns have disappeared in Bowing warmth below the horizon, and the romantic night comes on, We turn to dancing as the most convivial of all pleasures for the, young and little, But do "we" struggle around wringing in clamminess. kept in by a strangling black bow, a stiff shirt, and a monkey jacket? No, however narking our conventionality must appear to the Gcitizen of an emancipated community such as Shanghai, we have long t@ken ét as a matter of course that in summertime, it is not only not impolite, but actually more pleasing in appearance when the guests at an hotel dance are attired uniform, and at their comfort in "flannels with an open-necked. shirt.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.