Communists' Work: Fish Plates Removed Bight fourth-class coaches _on the No. 20 coolie class train, from anking to Shanghai, were derailed te on November 20 as the result of an act of sabotage in which fish plates were removed from the. main track of the Shanghai-Nanking Railway by unknown persons for a distance of more than 100 yards.
Whilst railway officials interviewed by a representative of the "Noxth-China Daily News" were inclined to the opinion that the job was the work of Communists, many.|others were equally strong' in the belief that it was an attempt on various officials, it being the habit, of many of the leading members of, the National Government' to' travel to and from Shanghai during weekends. Various members of the, Central Executive Committee of the their community. it is hardly neces sary to point out that owing to the strong cohesion which the Japanese fare able to maintain, the collection of reliable statistics on this matter has been by no means difficult, It all the more remarkable, thera-fore, in the opinion of the Japanese Jcommunity, that they have been able to come to the definite conclusion that 99 per cent. of the crime among [Japanese in the Settlement is direct ly due to dog racing. They are, therefore, prepared to go to the utmost lengths in supporting any movement for the suppression of greyhound racing. It is an admitted fact that the Japanese are not content with the amount of control h they exercise in Settlement affairs in comparison with their numerical strength. They feel that being compelled, as they are, to take communal action to prohibit their nationals from attending dog racing, they are forced to a step which should not be necessary if the administration of the Settlement, were on a sound. basi It is further understood that among: the American community in the Settlement there is very little interest taken in greyhound voeing, but the American community, as a whole, are believed to favour suppression. The opposition, therefore, is under= stood to come from a comparatively small section of the community, in addition to those who are directly interested in the maintenance of the enterprise.
It is recognized that any decision in favour of suppression should take into account the position of those who have invested money in good faith in the Greyhound Racing Com= The view is held, however, that this point can be pressed too far. Few would pretend that the speculative character of such a com= mercial enterprise would not be ap-Parent to the most unsophisticated shareholder, Moreover, in the light of the publicity which the proposal to suppress hax received, there should be very little misapprehension left on this particular point,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.