the Editor of the "Nomru-Cuiwa Dany News"
-Sm—in the leaderette printed under the title "No Mea Novelists" in your to-day's issue you present Jyour readers with an interesting reference taken from the "China Review" in which the writer seems to" deplore the scarcity of male writers of novels on China, pointing out that women seem to hold the field entirely to themselves. The writer of the ref ference will be still further concerned when he knows that L. Adams Beck, whom he described a3 one of two male writers on fiction dealing, with China, was also a woman. This writer of delightful prose was the wife of a retired British naval otices [and lived for some years in Victoria, British Columbia, but later took up residence in Kyoto, Japan, where she wrote several charming novels deal ing with the love affairs of westerners and Japanese, She died several [years ago, and her ashes were buried the grounds of a Buddhist temple accordance with her wishes, as she was very interested in that religion. She wrote several fine biographies under the pseudonym of E. Barrington, the best known, perhaps, being on Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, a talking or silent picture, (I forget which) of which was shown at the Embassy theatre in Shanghai some years ago under the title, "The Enchanted Lady.
Another inaccuracy which I feel should be pointed out is the writer's reference to the late Putnam Weale's work as a novelist. That gifted author never stopped writing novels twenty-five years ago as we are incorrectly informed. His last nove "The Port of Fragrance" was published the same year (1930) in which and "Wang the Ninth" was! Published only three years before that, a book which W. Somerset Maugham said was Putnam Weale's best effort, and should have aroused much greater interest than it did.
One reason why men writers on China do nothing, if anything, in the way of fiction on China, is because they are so much interested in poll-tes, books on which come off the presses regularly. I have only to mention such names as Upton Close, Nathaniel Peffer, George E. Sokolsky, Grover Clark, 0. D. Rasmussen and Rodney Gilbert to show how politics seems to engage the interest of good male writers, rather than fiction. But when such good work Is being done by women writers in the realm of fiction, "not only would it be imprudent to compete with them, but would make a superfluity of what is so well and entertainingly presented already.
Cannot, Luxr.
Shahghai, June 4
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.