THE part played by the British Women's Association in the Shanghai crisis last year anc d the many problems connected with it formed the principal theme of the xpecch of Mrs. J. S. Whitney, acting Chairman, at the annual meeting of the Associa~ tion held at 12 The Bund on March 11. Among those present was Mrs, Herbert Phillips, wife of #.M, Consul-General, who arrived in Shanghai on March 7 but immediately consented to become Hon. President in order to attend.
Mrs. Whitney said the executive, committee met for the last time before the summer recess, on June 23 and members made their own plans for the holidays, those leaving before August 13 being among the fortunate. "You. all know: what happened on that day and the day following—they will remain occasions never to be forgotten in the mind of any person. who was in this tormented city. 'The British authorities decided to} take the step of evacuating the vast majority of British women and chile dren? and between August 17 and 'August 24, about 3,500 had been' taken away. Among those who! were obliged to leave Shanghai were our Acting Chairman at that time; Mrs, Brooke, and our Secretary, Mrs. Colter, Before leaving on August 26 Mrs, Brooke had ascertained that {should be prepared to carry on and had notified the Consulate of this fact, The great majority of the Executive Bourd were either away from Shanghai or compelled to leave.
"Under the exceptional circum stanees obtaining on the Bund, the Toms at Headquarters were closed: on August 16, for some days, We were not alone in this, since the Hongkong & Shanghai' Bonk re~ moved their banking operations out West in common with most other banks,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.