The story yesterday of an Indian shop in Hongkew requires amplification, if only to indicate the danger of allowing enthusiasm to overcome the choice of epithets by which to describe it. The Sikhs who run that particular business are men of enterprise, good citizens of Shanghai and independent in their mode of thought, but that does not imply either a leaning toward "revolutionary" programmes in the technical sense of the term or a lukewarm appreciation of the advantages of being a subject of the King-Emperor of India. This realist interpretation of the attitude of these gentlemen has been conveyed. with due emphasis by a pleasant personal visit at which, in this office, memories of their own cities of Lahore and Amritsar were duly discussed in their own tongue. It is true that they feel proud at being able at this moment to salute the Union Jack as their flag, just as British and Indian officers in Sikh regiments+tor every Sikh is a soldier at heart—salute the Granth Sahib as it is carried at the head of the battalion. They merely intended to give special fervour to that salute at a time of exceptional stress and strain. But they expressly disclaim both revolutionary sentiments or indifference to an Empire which has just endowed their countrymen with further political and constitutional independence of substantial significance.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.