Once again the offices of this journal had to receive practical illustration of the drawbacks of producing a newspaper on the edge of a conflict. The revival of the Pootung duel in the early part of the evening occasioned the usual anxiety which proved to be groundless, but after midnight when the never very placid process of seeing the paper to press was developing its final stages, at least three and possibly more three-inch shells hit the rear of the North-China Daily News" building and did an appreciable amount of damage. A Chinese member of the printing staff and two Chinese occupants of the top floors were injured but fortunately not seriously. Their wounds were quickly attended to. The News Editor and the Sports Editor, who were taking a final observation from the roof while waiting for the football results to come in from London, were blown off their feet by the explosion and sustained severe bruises and cuts; otherwise they were unhurt and were able to preside over the concluding ceremonies of the evening without mishap. Tribute is due to the supervisors and members of this journal's composing room staff who were working on the floor just beneath that where the chief damage was done and maintained the admirable calmness which has marked their deportment ever since the present difficulties arose. They showed clearly how familiarity with the eccentricities of guns and bombs breeds a confidence in the generosity of the goddess of fortune. Neighbours like the Chartered Bank of India and the Palace Hotel also had their share of the attentions of the dispensers of missiles. They too escaped any mortal injury but sustained structural damage, the Bank receiving in the penthouse from the rear tu shells which made a gaping hole in its The most damage was probably that done on the seventh-floor in this building where a shell entered the office of the Life Insurance Company and, in passing from one end to the other, managed to achieve the effects of a minor earthquake. The hour was happily chosen for, unlike newspapermen, insurance experts do not usually hold their mystic seances at night with the result that, although the furniture and office accessories had a bad time, no humeri casualty occurred. Yesterday morning an official of the Japanese Embassy called to make inquiries and was courteously anxious to learn the extent of the damage. He inspected some of the shell-holes and also a dud hich had been extricated from the debris
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.