The non-arrival in Shanghai of issues of the "Peking and liertsin Times" since the end of August is ample proof of the report that that journal has been banned from the mails. It is reported that this decision has been taken because of the trenchant manner in which the reports concerning the alleged evacuation of Japanese from the British and French Concessions in Tientsin had been handled editorially, and it is stated that the British authorities have already registered an emphatic protest. Tt is difficult to understand why repeated interference with the foreign Press in China has failed to convince the Japanese authorities that not only are they failing in achieving their immediate object, the suppression of unfavourable news and views, but they are actually succeeding in emphasizing the significance of everything which they have sought to suppress. All the precautions in the world could not prevent the story of Nanking last December reaching the outside world, nor could the censorship which was exercised im Shanghai prevent the full story of the attack on the C.N.. aeroplane over the Canton delta eventually weaching this port. Suppression may delay the publication of the facts, but that delay gives. them added. significance, and in the end censorship defeats the very objects which its institution has in view. Apart from that consideration there is another and an important one. When Japanese censors were installed in the Chinese Post Office locally, it was specifically stated that there would be no interference with foreign mails. It has been shown on numerous occasións that that pledge is now being honoured in the breach unnecessarily, frequently, as is also that regarding the scrupulous respect to be paid to the interests of third party Powers in China. One of those interests, certainly so far as Great Britain and the United States of America are concerned is the freedom of the Press, and there have been indications that. in this respect as in others due regard to promises has not be paid by the Japanese officials. It is probably true that this is by no means at the desire of the higher officials, but rather to the eccentricities of subordinates who display all manner of vagaries, Holes in One Ambition _has led men to scale mountain peaks, explore Polar wastes and make lone fights across oceans but the satisfaction lying in the success, in its way, can scarcely be greater than "the satisfaction given the golfer who does his hole in one, or the duffer who breaks "his hundred for ihe first time. The infectious habit of scoring direct from the tee is spreading alarmingly among Shanghai golfers for within a week three have done a hole in one at Hungjao- and two of them were on the same hole, the 13th incidentally which ought to help in the slaughter of the superstition attached to this number. Mr. H. Cameron did his on the sixth on Saturday, and Mr. A. Ricketts, holder of the China "Open Amateur championship, and Mr. George Norris, ihe local professional, did theirs on the 13th on Thursday. There were days when golfers who perpetrated this feat shared with footballers and cricketers who did the "hat trick" certain largesse from local firms to commemorate their prowess, but this practice seems to have fallen into desuetude. Nevertheless, the feat is remarkable arid three in a row on the same course in a week is worthy of note by those artistic chroniclers of strange and almost incredible facts and coincidences. Paradoxically, rare as such a feat is to one golfer—this is the first hole in one Mr. Norris has done in his many years of golf—records show that to others it is mere child's play. Alex. Herd did it 19 times and curiously enough when he did his) 16th he was carrying a "jigger" which another player asked if he could try. Permission was given and the player on the 17th immediately holed out in one. James Braid has done it 14 times and there is an astonishingly long list of. players who have holed out twice in the same round. George Kirkby, at Stoneham, Southampton, did the ninth hole in one, a distance of 340 yards, the longest of its kind recorded. There are also cases of players halving a hole in one, and one case of a Canadian player doing two successive holes in one. Strange to say, the late Harry Vardon, who scored the greatest number of victories in the Open Championship, only did a hole in one once in his long golfing career.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.