Mar. 17.
Shanghai so often deludes it.
If with the belief that its head stronger than its heart that the effect of damnable iteration becomes almost impossible to withstand. Yet no-one can be in Shanghai for long without being aware that this delusion is about fas firmly founded as the theory that, if the newspapers really, gave their attention to the sub-Jject, they could find a permanent: cure for Snanghai's traffic ills, Lady Hope Simpson is a distinguished newcomer. She bad not much reason to be charmed with Shanghai on her, arri Apart from providing her with more thrills than a newly-landed issiter had any right to demand it afflicted -her with one of the current maladies and temporarily placed her on the sick list. Barely had she recovered thai she proceeded on her own account to investigate Shanghai's heart-trouble. The results will be seen fin the graphic tale which she Imodestly tells to-day. No-one could have seen the streams of refugees coming into the Settle. ment in the early days of the crisis" without being deeply moyed. No-one could have dis-learned their remarkable fortitude, in the midst of a most perplexing and nerve shatter-jing cataclysm, without feeling impressed. The spirit of human sympathy, never dormant really in the most triple-armoured frame, could not fail to assert itself.' Shanghai, of course, was not ready to indulge' in emotion lor surprise. It is the fashion here to regard everything as having happened before. The safety valve for embarrassing flutterings of the heart is an accurate fhistorieal knowledge of what happened in Wherenotfu in 1897 lor of what some venerated chronicler of a distant or not $0 distant age remarked of certain trends of thought and policy. No amateur politician demanding of the orator on the platform "what did Mr. Gladstone say in 18792" jean be so perfect in that technique as the Shanghailander. That incidentally is why, only the lather day, an irreverent, reader, relying on editorial shortness of memory, contributed as his own letter to the correspondence columns, a leading article which had appeared in this very column some thirty years ago—and was detected in the act neither by this journal nor by the oldest inhabitant.
But, with all this highly polish-led hardheadedness, Shanghai leannot help betraying its warmth lof heart. Do not readers of this, Journal, practically of their own momentum, keep going a nine: {teen-year old Christmas fund for rickshaw men? Did they not, in. the space of twelve days last summer, raise a moble sum for the victims of a naval disaster off this coast? Did they not com forward to the help of the Hospi. tal Ship, for the Hankow flood refugees? And do not th went announcements in the last column on this page—a feature unknown to few cities—show that, the stream of charity in Shanghai has all the qualities of the Tennysonian brook? Shanghai, fact, is more like the Cheeryble Brothers than it would leave to think, If it had its own way it probably would take the me of Mr. Snake who, it will be remembered, urged that, his tone good deed should be kept strictly private, as otherwise he would lose his reputation—and his livelihood. But. it cannot have its own way because the weight of evidence is against it Lady Hope Simpson is the latest witness, subpoenaed on the warrant of her own human sympathy, to assist in the exposure of Shanghai's weakness for gentile deedes." And when the record of the work among the refugees is studied it will probably be agreed that Shanghai need not hang its head, There a lot more to be done but the support, to which Lady Ho Simpson pays so warm a tribute, is a guarantee that the necessary resources will be forthcoming.
In. performing this work of service Shanghai assuredly will,
tending it, be laying up for itself wit sibly in the least me treasure of real value. Those who recall the first influx of the refugees and the conditions which immediately followed ther invasion will also recall the liver ly fears thus aroused. Thanks to the wonderful efforts of the Police, the Volunteers, the Fire Brigade, the Public Works Department, the Health Department, the voluntary workers under the various committees hastily ganized and the Council itself, the refugee peril receded rapidly into the background. But, when all that is said, there must remain abounding admiration for.|the refugees themselves.
Their good-humour, their placid acceptance of the difficulties in which they were placed, their ingenious "squatting" in the mildest lawlessness which ever cumbered office staixeases, empty /houses and half-finished palaces, gave. Shanghai a, most improper'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.