Community Service Talk. by Rev. W. H. Hudspeth At yesterday's meeting of the Rotary Club, held at the Metropole Hoel, the speaker of the day, the Rev. Win. H. Hudspeth, took for the subject of his discourse, "Community Service."
In the course of his speech the speaker in part said. "We would ber commend everything that has been done and is being undertaken to ensure the safety and comparative comfort of this huge city and to lessen the pain, anguish and suffering of refugees. Along these lines one thinks of a multitude of se vices, "Continuing the speaker sai its source any disquieting rumour along three lines:
"Firstly, one of the finest services we can render to the community is to keep a cool head, quietly do our job and strain every nerve to keep as many men in employment as possible. "Business a usual" is a good stage days "the lads of village" were wont to demand eir "Two of the best and near the fropf, please!" Young men wearing badges direct people who will never/be late to spaces in the auditorium.
Hundreds of sleeping mats have replaced the rows of seats in the stalls. In the dim light of first glance at the huge room it seemed just a higgeldypiggeldy of tattered humanity, As the eyes attuned to the aer it was seen that there had been a regimentation in the allotment of floor space and that the mats were in well-ordered rows with those poor little bundles of earthly possessions tidied into the shape of pillows.
Six hundred men, women and children, survivors from Pootung, Nantao, Yangtszepoo, Chapei and Hongkew, filled almost every square foot of space, They herded near their belongings and there was tragedy in the thought that even the homeless could own so little. Here was a calm acceptance of fate. There was no wailing, no recapitulation cof woes. They chattered and joked, traded little things between themselves, seemingly enjoying this enlargement lof their natural love of a gregarious existence. They looked well fed on their portions of the 700 lb. of rice given out twice a day.
Their obvious content robbed the poverty picture of its poignancy. There were only two there who wrenched the heart strings: a very old woman, surrounded by lamenting relations, who was most obviously on her death bed. the other, a stone-blind slogan.
"A second invaluable service we can give is to help maintain peace and safety by rigorously tracking to its source any disquieting rumour we may hear.
"my third line of thought is this, and herein I am supported by the General Secretary of the Chinese Medical Association (Dr. Sze-ming). Whatever we undertake we can accomplish much better work by ce-operation and the pooling of resources, than by isolation."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.