Perhaps, it is superfluous to recapitulate' here the difficulties that the Council had experienced in the past years under the leadership Mr, Arzhold since, as I have said, we were all in the same boat and shared the stormy sea with him, If The allowed to use another metaphor, would say that the Council could belikened toa musical band. Whether we were worthy of the position of town musicians composing this band and whether our audience liked our jeoncert is, of course, open to question but it is certain that we had a very capable and efficient band-master. It is only natural that sometimes. we played different tunes, But our band master was always able to harmonize [the discordant notes and Jed them 1o Aevelop into perfect symphony. owed much of our pleasing accord of sounds to our leader, and if our audience thought that we had played well and that our voice was concord-fant and melodious it was all due to the "musical talent of our bandmaster.
It is with sorrow, therefore, that] }we, who, are gathered here to-night, contemplate the severance of Mr. Arahold's relations with the Council. Under ordinary circumstances, the deprivation of expert directorship means! the dissolution of the whole band. It very fortunate that we have been saved from the prospect of dissolution for immediately we have set up successor to Mr. Arnhold in the person of Mr. Franklin, Mr. Franklin is an old: member of our band and has done much in assisting Mr, Arnhold in achieving the harmony of our play. Now we are going to play anew, and we take this opportunity to assure Mr. Arnhold that we are going to play with equal vigour, and that those fine pieces of music which the band Played during his terms of mastership will continue to be the favourite! Jsongs of Shanghai in the years to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.