To the Editor of the Sm;—I am sure the broadcast appeals, sponsored by a worthy resident of this city, now doing his bit in aid of the suffering refugees, and the other efforts now under way to alleviate their lot, must strike a note of sympathy in the hearts of all those who have a heart to appreciate their plight. May-such of us who can, continue to give them the support they deserve.
But I now speak on behalf of those whose plight is not broadcast on the air, to whom no generous soup kitchens supplies their barest want, for whom no handsome donation is made for their upkeep, no, not even the decency of human,—I will not say Christianly,—consideration.
I write of those poor wretches who may be seen around the markets any morning these days—mere hawkers, as they are called—trying their best to eke out an honest living, selling a few "baskets of potatoes, or some heads of cabbage, maybe, and chased, nay flogged and kicked and their wares sent sprawling in the snow that the sanctity of the law be maintained.
I ask you, Sir, is this necessary? And more so now when we should remember that many are living in Shanghai who are not original residents, or whose finances at present make it not possible for them to purchase from the stores or from the stalls in the markets. These are but a mere minority, and less than a fraction, monetarily speaking, to the income of the storekeepers; yet they constitute a group nevertheless, and say I, to these poor but not insolvent, could not the supplier of the poor, the hawker, fill their needs, and this by the possession of say a reasonably-priced hawker's licence?
Perhaps the time has come for the mechanism of the law to be modified by that greater law—the law of humanity. And shearing the sheep at its proper season has ever been the logical thing to do; and never was this more necessary than now when misery is rampant in every nook and corner and the problem of unemployment—and with it the problem of crime,—an ever-growing factor.
Maybe a Portia is not necessary to plead this case for sanity and justice proper. The police of this "Model Settlement," international in its composition though it may now be, boasts of a British spirit and tradition. Can this much sense of British fairplay and sportsmanship be expected of them? Believe me, their action in so doing will go far to dispel the common belief that the keepers of the law are that, and that only. And more, it will- help bring forgetfulness of such actions by certain members of that body, the like of which, if done by parties of a certain other nationality, would quickly be taken up by writers and others and described in no lesser terms than rurality" and "inhumanity."
I trust this appeal will not fall on muffled ears, but that something will be done, and done quickly, if but in the spirit of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.