Canton, the City of Rams, has had a turbulent history which is not likely to be rendered more pacific by the Japanese landing in South China. Although it was the earliest point of contact with the west, measured on the Chinese city time scale it is comparatively new but the character of its inhabitants has left its mark on the development of China's relations with the world, Although the first contacts were not of their chosing, the Cantonese combined a receptivity for ideas with a native shrewdness and an astute comprehension of new conditions with the result that most of the Chinese found abroad today are from South China, and the sturdy independence of the people has filled pages of China's history in recent years. The tradition which gives the city its name, "The City of Rams," is characterized by that spirit of disbelief which breeds. independence and boldness, Some years before the Christian era people from the Yellow River basin began to drift south and found a home in Canton. It is related that five fairies also arrived from the north riding on goats and each bearing a stalk of grain. They carried a message asking the people of the district to live in peace and prosperity, but half the inhabitants failed to pay heed to the injunction and while there was p re was little peace, a fact- emphasized since the beginning of this century at least, The fairy visitors disappeared and, according to local tradition, their goats were turned into stone and changed their species at the same time for five stone rams are to be seen in the Temple of the Five Genii to add veracity to the Japan's war plans possibly do not envisage a sentimental attachments but Ñobody doubts that the Cantonese will be able to give a good account of themselves.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.