In any American hamlet boasting 2.000 inhabitants, Thanksgiving Day never passes without the traditional football game—there may be high school players against a "scrum" eleven, but the occasion always is kept within an hour or two of mid-day meal of turkey and the "fixing." Since time immemorial, Shanghai has Observed this custom, usually with a civilian team opposed to a service group. Particularly since the 4th Regiment of the U.S. Marines arrived here in the spring of 1927 with the Defence Force, the annual game has taken on a more significant aspect, but this year, owing to the evacuation of many American civilians and the handicaps under which the American School has laboured, it devolved upon the 2nd Brigade of the Marines to field two teams. At the Canidrome on Thursday, two elevens, representing the 4th and 6th Regiments maintained the tradition and, for a popular sporting event the cosmopolitan audience evinced their appreciation Notwithstanding the fact that the British, French and Italian services were unaware of the finer points of the game, they cheered vociferously, supporting their friends from the regiments represented. As a gesture of international friendship, the 5,000 spectators who almost filled the main stands, with another 900 on the opposite side and in the foreground, there has been no sporting match in Shanghai to equal Thursday's "fracas," during the past eight years. It goes without ing that Shanghai lauds the fine defensive work of the 4th Marine team and the brilliant effort of the winners during the last seven minutes.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.