July 17
The voice of proper civie patrio~ tism spoke "in the mote-ore less hermetically scaled chamber of the Municipal Council when the proposed provision of improved tand~ ing facilities on the Bund was commended by the generally accepted argument that the existing arrangements constituted a "bad advertisement" for Shanghai. The present Council has been in office jess than three months so. it deserves warm congratulations on thus firmly deciding to remove a Jong-standing source of incon= venience which, as was suggested, oes ess than justice (o Shanghai's standing as the sixth port and the Afth most populous city in' the world, Flanked by the larger Lon= don, New York, Tokyo, and Berlin on one side and by the smaller Chicago, Paris, Moscow, and Osaka and on the other, Shanghai rightly Teels that it deserves to be able greet its visitors on their landing with a dignity which is it at least comparable with something more impressive than, say, the Southern Railway's amenities' at Ryde, if British readers know enough of that quaint Isle of Wight port to be able to explain the significance of the: comparison to those who ean= not be expected to have that knowledge. In welcoming the Council's decision it might tactful to add that a lively sense of the urgency of the ofer has been stimulated by observance of developments further down the Whangpoo, At all events it seems probable that, when 1938 is coming to an end, the Bund will have for neean-borne arrivals waiting ac~ commodation which will remove a too long endured reproach. The reproach has been all the more irritating to hospitable Shanghailanders because travellers from faverseas, especially by the time that they reach this Far Eastern port, have suilcient experience to be able to make odious comparisons and cannot therefore be put off with even the most ingenious, excuses, however, skilfully com-
Yel, inportaiit as this decision in itself, the governing factor,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.