April is popularly supposed to be the capricious month, even in Shanghai, which the weather man often seems to pick out as a victim for some atmospheric surprise or other. Yes, April showers are proverbial even in Shanghai.. But judging by the stupendous programme which the mischievous gentleman in charge of the weather arrangements had planned for yesterday, March threatens to run April, an extremely close second in this respect. Following on a perfect Spring day, with sunny skies, and a top temperature soaring away into the 70's, local residents awoke yesterday to find rain and later sleet blotting out the sun which had smiled upon them the previous day. Then, surprise of surprises, loud claps of thunder shook nerve-wracked Shanghailanders out of their shoes, caused hundreds of hearts to skip a beat, thousands of teeth to chatter, and scores of startled cats to run up the nearest tree. "Twas nearing noon when the terrible crashes of heaven's artillery echoed through the war-swept city, which has been accustomed to sterner music in recent months, and for a moment thought that the symphony was being accorded an ill-timed encore. It took some time for Shanghailanders to assure each other that "it was just thunder'—so many other things seemed so much more highly probable, Giving up in despair at yesterday's weather, the Siccawei thermometer just went off to sleep, refusing to record the highest and lowest temperatures. Unsettled weather, it is predicted, will continue throughout to-day.
This statement was made to-day by Dr. Edouard Benes, President of Czechoslovakia, in an interview with a correspondent of the "Sunday Times."
The President stressed that the adoption of a different attitude would not be a contribution to peace, as it would justify similar intervention elsewhere. Dr. Benes then specified the position of the Czechoslovakian Government towards minorities:
1,—Loyalty to' the minority treaties concluded under the auspices of the League of Nations.
2.—Recognition of Europe's moral right to show interest in the treatment of minorities.
3.—Desire to give the interested countries, particularly France and Great Britain, such information as they think useful on the subject.
4—Desire to contribute to any general settlement between European powers.
The President expressed the, hope that the forthcoming negotiations between Great Britain and Italy would end in success, "We shall, of course, never abandon the' western powers with whom we are linked by a common desire to maintain peace in Europe," he said.
Treatment of Minorities Dealing with the question of minorities, the President stated that in Czechoslovakia there is one school for every 862 German speaking cit}zens while in Prussia itself, there is one school for ery 1,112 inhabitants, thus revealing that the German minorities in Czechoslovakia are being favourably treated from the educational viewpoint.
In conclusion, the President declared himself against any federal solution, 53
"A federal solution is impossible for us," he said. "We don't discriminate between German and Czechoslovakian parties. We simply apply the procedure: of a parliament tary regime,"—Havas.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.