Prida in the achievements of great men in the past should not be allowed to develop into a pessimism which prevents emulation in the present. Mr. HE. Amnhold did a cal service to the community at the St, David's Day Dinner in' urging this point of view on British Shai hhallanders. The community's apathy in civie affairs here is notorious. Yet Shanghai owes much to British enterprise and British effort, The idea that the "giants of the past"
success handed to them on a plate, as Mr, Priestley would say, is Absuraly fallacious, Whatever the present difficulties and handicaps may be, It (s probable that they were equalled, If not outstripped, by those aMicting the early pioneers in Shanghai. Even at this tine, when Shanghai is under a cloud, it' is impossible to have anything but the most fervent faith in its future. The art which the British or other foreign resident may have to play will perhaps be different from that en-feted to-day, just as, to-day's condi tions differ so markedly from those if the past. British piety alone may not be assertive enough to enforce determination in sharing the further progress of this great city, British Intelligence, force of character and enterprise should, however, not be unequal to the task, And' there is earthly reason why, in the ultlmate record of Shanghai, the roll of rear British citizens should not be embellished by names of the twen-teeth, at well og of the nineteenth, century, Me, Arnhold made no ple As elected head of the International Settlement to which British effort has made 0 fine a contribution he authoritatively exhorted his fellow countrymen to preserve their own traditions and hold on the proper ideals of "public service and civic duty", The. call was timely and should be duly heeded.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.