Major Hans Berents draws attention to the heavy responsibilities of the committee over which he is presiding for rendering succour to members of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps who by reason of their response to the mobilization orders have been subjected to serious financial loss owing to the looting or destruction of their belongings and cther unavoidable causes. Although the appeal is published in these columns it is obviously one which can be commended only to the notice of members of the Corps. On the general public at this moment the calls of charity are great and although it would not be surprising if a creditable sense of citizenship evoked a response from non-volunteers in gratitude for services discharged for the defence of the Settlement, the Committee has made no secret of its opinion that the obligation is mainly for the members of the Corps themselves to accept. The list of subscriptions and gifts shows that so far those resources have hardly been tapped and Major Berents' letter should help to emphasize that point, It cannot. be suggested that the wealthier members of the Corps have so little of the regimental spirit that they cannot give a thought to the needs and straits of their less fortunate colleagues. That would, however, be the deduction if a more generous response is not forthcoming from them. Units which pride themselves on their exclusiveness should bear this point in mind. They will be letting down the Corps if they allow the impression to get abroad that there is within its ranks an absence of comradeship.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.