"What strikes one as so curious is the apparently universal conviction of Japanese that the indignation in this country at their invasion of China is solely due to diabolically clever Chinese propaganda. I have received this week a long letter from an old and valued Japanese friend in Tokyo, a man of most liberal mind and absolute honesty. His account of the origins of the war are bewildering. Either every foreign correspondent in China has been lying for years past, or the Japanese people have been deliberately deceived and befooled. Can the: really believe that China wantonl; attacked them? Do the recollections of Manchoukuo, Bast Hopei, the smuggling, the 2,000 Japanese troops in Peiping and Tientsin suggest no explanation of why the Chinese mistrust their protestations of friendship?
"Friends of China" Dissolved Discouraging as the outlook is the friends of China are working valiant-By the way, the particular organization of that name, "Friends of China," has been dissolved, It formed itself about one year and a half ago, and was of a very extreme left type. I had a long conversation with two of its originators at the time and they condemned Gen. Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang with an energy worthy of Agnes Smedley. Since the war began they have been doing what they could, but I gather that people from.whom they hoped for support fought shy of their views.
Yesterday I had notice of a preli-minery meeting to be held next week, to organize an exhibition of Chinese art in aid of medical relief in China.
What an uproar they will make! It is a constant and not unreasonable complaint of motorists that cyclists no tax, Yet it is no exaggeration that they behave as if the roads belonged te them, glorying in the certainty that if the motorist touches them, however much the fault is theirs, the magistrate will decide against the brutal car-driver.
As for carrying rear lights—if only they would light their head lights motorists would feel easier. When I was young and rode a bicycle: the police were very sharp on an unlighted lamp. Now they seem to ignore it. Nine out of ten cyclists coming away, say. from the big aeroplane works at Weybridge and going home along country roads never light their lamps.
I see a report in to-day's paper that a number of men at Detroit, U.S.A, deliberately made themselves drunk and started out to see what would happen when they drove; cars. It was scientifically decided thet "the average drunken driver loses more than 21 per cent. of his all-round efficiency." We could have guessed that. On the most exciting pdrt of the test the report is silent. But perhaps we shall get some pictures mail Before leaving the discussions of Parliament I would mention that Sir Kingsley Wood's unhappy Population (Statistics) Bill, has been severely edited, some definition of the ques-lions that may be asked of proud parents or mourning spouses "being included, and considerable restriction placed on the scope of others not specified.
Mr. A. P. Herbert has been interviewed and expresses his full approval. The sub-editor, seizing an opportunity not to be missed, heads the interview, "Mr. Herbert Pleased with the Minister."
But will it get home?
The newspapers have "unanimously christened Sir Kingsley Wood's bani-ling "The Nosey Parker Bill"
at ought to kill it, passed qr unpassed qr w Among the many distinguished patrons are the Archbishop of York. Lord y viscountess Gladstone, Mr. J. B. Priestley, Sir Hugh Walpole, Sir William Beveridge, Miss Strachey, Principal of Newnham College, the Rabbi Hertz, Dr. Norwood and many more; "altogether a most catholic assembly.
Another enterprise, also to raise funds, is a Chinese variety entertainment, juggling, Chinese music, recital tions by Miss Rose Quong the lecturer, and a Chinese one-act play, to take place at the Phoenix Theatre on Saturday. Most of the performers I believe, come from the East End.
The tragic death of the young Chinese who threw himself from the top of the New World building before the Japanese soldiers in that "victory parade" on December 3, is the subject of a very good letter in the "Daily Telegraph" from Mr. Kenneth Cantli formerly adviser to the Chinese Na tional' Railwa: "The significance of the suicide, namely to make the Japanese "lose face" would be unrecognized by most Western readers, but aš Mr. Cantho says the Japanese army would know quickly enough how they had been made to "lose face" and would be proportionately furious, Appeal Against Expulsion:
A vivid light on the recent purges of the unorthodox in Russfa is thrown by the appeal of M. Batman, recently Soviet Charge d'Affaires in Athens, to allow h France. he having return to Russia, and havi In his appeal M.
Harmon recalls tha: for nineteen he served the Soviet fmthfuilv, rst n thes Red then in diplomacy. Lid had tests, no thought but devotion to the caus? of the working: class and of the people.
"The recent Moscow trials," he writes. "filled me with stupefaction. It was impossible for me willingly to consent to the execution of the old
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.