I appreciate very much the great honour which the Cosmopolitan Clu) hho done me by asking me to speak fon the occasion of its inauguration That "cosmopolitan Shanghai should boast of a cosmopolitan club, cosmopolitan both in name and spirit, something that" everyone" should rejoice in. The aim of the Club, understand, is to promote through ite members better understanding amongst the peoples of the various nations represented, and it Is hoped that through a frank and unbiased dis cussion of current events this group Intelligent citizens: may contribute towards the crystallization of true public opinion, To my humble min the organization of the eli at shis moment Is most timely and fttiag, for at no other time in the history of the Far East has the need of clarified public opinion been so pressing as it Is how, Some would have us believe that public opinion can be created. artifelally or directed to suit our whims, but they are wrong. 'True public opinion cannot be manufactured'. I {sa spontaneous expression of the human' instinct of condemning the wrongdoer. It gives an outlet to the outraged sense when one finds, {oF Instance, that the cardinal principles governing the relations between in Gividuals" or between nations. are viol When" it begins to assert itself, nothing in the world could stop it,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.