To the Editor of the "Nortu-Cuina Day News"
Siy,—Shanghai can claim for herself the dubious privilege of being one of the most noisy towns of the world, There is no other place where car drivers honk their horns so recklessly without being reported. It seems to be unknown to the police of Shanghai that in other capitals of Europe tooting is only allowed cases of need and is at night entir forbidden. Here in Shanghai you "an hear tooting even after curfew hours when the traffic is practically dead. Some drivers feel the obliga- B tion of announcing their coming at every street corner instead of slowing down their speed. The police do not do anything against them.
Since the beginning of hostilities the noise of Shanghai has further been augmented by the shouting of the newspaper boys, Already at 6 o'clock in the morning this noise starts, lasts till 7 o'clock and starts again with every edition of a newspaper.
It is time that the police of the Settlement stop this senseless and useless noise. Previous to the "in cident" the Chinese newspapers were not "cried out"*and the foreign newspapers are even now being sold without being announced in shrill sounds.
On complaints the Settlement authorities posted a policeman at certain houses with instructions to prohibit the newsboys from shouting. But nothing was done when those newsboys again started their shouting further down the road.
I extend a cordial invitation to any police representative to stay a few days at my residence which is on Bubbling Well Road opposite the Chocolate Shop, in order to "enjoy the cacophony to which we are subjected, Tt must be urgently demanded that the Settlement police decide to forbid generally in an efficient way the shouting of the newsboys and proceed with all means against any violation of their orders, If this is not very soon done this shouting will continue even after the cessation of hostilities. The tax payers of Shanghai have the right to demand of the police that their sleep be not disturbed through this bedlam and that their nerves, already enough tense. are not further burdened by this avoidable nuisance, Shanghai, Oct, 30,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.