Department were reported, yesterday, by a contemporary to have clarified the "pig controversy" by a statement emanating from them. They also appear to have endeavoured to administer a snub to this journal in the following passage:—
"The recent campaign conducted through the local press, however, was said to have nothing to do with the order issued he the Health Department, One the department had begun its work last November and had tried to improve conditions ever since that time. The order which was published yesterday was said to be merely a reminder to the shippers."
The writers of the many letters to the correspondence columns of this journal will be pleased to know that the publication of their complaints and protests had really no effect upon the official mind, which was apparently apprised of conditions as far back as November last and had been trying to improve conditions ever since. The breath-taking rapidity of thought in which the Public Health Department indulged is positively bewildering and ought to be sternly suppressed, On the face of the statement above-quoted the decision was reached to publish the notice which appeared on Saturday "merely as a reminder to shippe: s" was the result of six months meditation. The fear, which has been quite generally expressed in the past, that certain organs of the Council delay making decisions in the hope that the necessity for such will disappear by the flux of time, seems to be justified, This journal does not know how many pigs have been imported during the six months in which the Health Department has been profoundly cogitating over this matter, but would not at all be surprised if it were found that an enormous number of animals had been imported under conditions which arouse the greatest possible indignation. It is imperative, of course, that the utmost care should be taken to ensure against hasty decisions, but the public will not be satisfied by the assurance given by certain officials of the Health Department until it has been demonstrated that those responsible for the manner in which the pigs arrive in Shanghai have either been forced or mend their way, or have had landing permits denied them. This journal, and without doubt the correspondents who have written to it on the subject, are not prepared to wait another six months before definite public action is taken, but want to know that energees have been initiated in order to an_end to a most disgraceful state of affairs. Comment on the subject, however, should not close without congratulations to the officials responsible for the statement to a contemporary upon the manner in which they have demonstrated their aloofness from public opinion, An Anniversary While local members of the Royat Society of St. George were celebrating the day of England's patron Saint lovers of Shakespeare remembered that it was also the anniversary of the death, in 1616, of the famous poet and playwright, Much more is known of him than of the Cappadocian who lived so many centuries before, and probably few men have left so strong an influence on a people as the Bard has on the English, by reason of his effect upon their letters. And though so much more is known, there is still in the minds of many that lurking doubt whether it was he who wrote the plays which have given so much pleasure during these last three centuries. In some that doubt amounts to a conviction that Will Shakespeare did nothing of the sort, but that all the plays and poems ascribed to him were from the hand of Lord Bacon. Some find it impossible to believe that, with the very elementary education Shakespeare received at the church school at Stratford-on-
Avon, it was possible for him to have done so, but to hold too strongly to that belief means to disregard the fact that many men of poor education have eventually reached great heights. It really does not matter who wrote what has been attributed to Shakespeare, for whatever the name, it is the man whose brain was responsible for those remarkable creations who is so honoured throughout the world today. St. George's Day has not the same appeal to people in England as it has to those of her sons settled in other parts of the world. On Friday 500 guests, including the American Ambassador to the Court of St. James were present at a ceremony on the site of the proposed Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre at South Kensington, when the deeds for the land were formally handed over to Mr. George Bernard Shaw, chairman of the National Theatre Committee, The presence of the American Ambassador at so important a- function was particularly pleasing, for American interest in the Shakespearean tradition is best evidenced by the poem by the American poet, John Whittier in which he wrote:—
O Englishmen!—in tongue and creed In blood and tongue our brothers We too are heirs of Runnymede, And Shakespeare's fame and Cromwell's deed Are not alone our mother's,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.