Lordon. Jan, 20.
1 hear from Oxford that a final decision on the appointment to the Chinese lectureship, which was expected to be known by now, must wait for another three months. A meeting of the electoral board was recently held, when a very strong. list of candidates for the lectureship was presented. Here was the diffi. cully. Merits were so evenly distributed among the candidates that It was agreed that further considera tion and details were necessary.
Some time ago 1 reported that Sir Reginald Johnston. was retiring from the post of Director of Chinese at the London School of Oriental Studles at the beginning of this year. That was correct at the time, but the Directors of the §chool have since decided that they would like Sir Reginald to stay tu August. The question of his. successor is being carefully considered. Sir Reginald is now living at the Atheneum as the Best available substitute in London for the peacefulness of his Scottish islands, 'The Thatched House Club was: much emptier to-day than usual on 3 Wednesday, Influenza, of course. Mr. 'A.W. Burkill has had a very sharp tack; he was In bed for fen days and is only just beginning to craw! about the house again. Dr, Nield's family have all had it, though ne escaped. It is extraordinary how many people one meets, or hears of, who have had "tu or are having tt.
complications, this year, but it leave it's usuary of a mild ype, without {he patient hopelessly washed out.
Mr. P. H. B. Kent of Tientsin is addressing the China Committee MPs at the House of Commons tomorrow. Mr, Kent has been doing 2 good deal of speaking in London this year—at the London Chamber of Commerce, the Royal Central Asian Society and to-day at the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He is also very busy correcting the proofs of his book. He hopes to make a trip by air to South Africa early next month before returning to Asia, The increasing use of air travel, by the way, is one of the most marked changes of the day. Mr. Lyall, for example, formerly Commissioner of Customs in Shanghai lives in London but periodically has to go to Geneva for meetings of the International Opium Commission of which he Is chairman. He invariably travels by air and says he cannot imagine travelling by any other means where ncroplanes are avall~ able.
Mr. G. Lowder Returning to China Another former Commissioner in Shanghai, Mr. Gordon Lowder, is shortly Felurning to China for a prolonged visit. Since he retired from China he has been living first in Parkstone and latterly at Bromley in Kent. But England in January: and February is not an ideal resid ence and Mr. Lowder hears the East a-collin'
By the way, I don't know why I should abuse England in January and February more than any place. One of the surprises of the Spanish Civil war ig that even in reputedly "Sunny. Spain" fox. snow, rain, and piercing cold have to be endured by com: bat ants us much as machine-guns and bombs. In Shanghai January and Febriary are proverbially beastly. And although French people tr tionally complain of our climate, well remember the unpleasantness of the winters T spent in Paris before going to China. Even in southern France and aly when mistral oF tramontane blows one begins to think. affectionately of England's grey skies.
Quite a little sensation was caused in the Chinese community of London this week when it became known that Mr, Ssu-lee Chang, Warden of China Institute in Gower Street had got married. His bride is Miss
marked ability, who has been study Ametin 'El, of Shanghai, pianist of ing music in' London. No one had any idea of the engagement unfit the day of the wedding, which took place in St. Paul's Presbyterian church, Bayswater, only a few friends being present. Mr. Chang is a Ca tonese, young. alert, and full of ideas for the Improvement of the conditions of Chinese students in London. He is the editor of the"China Review", monthly magazine devoted to Chiese names and interests as its name implies.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.