It was with the greatest regret that this journal, yesterday, had to announce the resignation of Mr. Edwin Howard, its editor or the past eight years, for reasons of health. He had for some years been the victim of asthma. During the voyage home on leave he suffered more than usually, and upon consulting with his own medical adviser and specialists was emphatically warned against returning to the Far East. And so journal loses another of the long line of brilliant men who have so successfully controlled its destinies. Born in 1884, Howard studied at Reading and subsequently at King's College, London, and in 1909 joined the staff of the "Civil and Military Gazette" in India and later became editor of the "Pioneer" at Allahabad. After nineteen years service in india he retired to England where he became Press Information Oflicer at the India Office, post which he relinquished to come out East again to join the "North-China Daily News" in succession to Mr. O. M. Green. Of ie quality of his ability Shanghai was soon to learn, and within a very few months iaward established himself as a man of out-anding qualities and a definite acquisition journalism in China. Like his immediate predecessor he saw stirring times. Of Green it was truly written at the time of his retirement that he came to China at the beginning of its transition, He saw the small cloud rising in the south which eventually swept ihe Manchu regime into oblivion and brought ihe republic into existence. Those were interesting and important times. The shorter period during which Howard served on the "North-China Daily News" was.even more stirring. He had hardly been in the editorial air for a year when the Manchurian Incident occurred and with that thoroughness which marked everything he did, as soon as st was possible he made a tour of Manchuria, d, on returning, wrote the "Manchurian Medley" which proved to be an interesting and important survey of conditions in the three Eastern provinces as he found them. sie had scarcely returned from that trip when -he first Shanghai Incident occurred.
That crisis brought the man out at his best.
Shanghai naturally looked to its leading journal for guidance in those days of stress and no little of the confidence in its future which the city then indicated arose from level and sane lead which Howard gave daily in his editorials. He had been through trouble in India, and the experience which he then gained served him well in Shanghai. For ihe next five years he watched Shanghai climb quickly out of the slough of despond which the destruction of 1932 had plunged it. He had by that time acquired the spirit of the place and with it that quiet confidence in its future which was always apparent in Ais writing on local matters. Howard was not a destructive critic; he was at all times constructive, and it is the confirmed opinion of members of the staff which he is leaving that, by his objective writing, he did much to bring about a better un derstanding between foreigners and Chinese, not only in Shanghai itself but elsewhere in China. Then came the trouble of last year. Controlling aft fully extended by the demands which the crisis made upon them, Howard main-ined a coolndis òf outlook which was perfectly amazing to those with whom he was in daily contact. The fury and the fighting audible from the offices of this journal failed to disturb him, and on many an occasion when others were away from their desks trying to see all that there was to be seen, Howard would be working patiently at his typewriter as if all that was happening were no more than a passing thunderstorm. It was a display of those qualities of leadership which go to make a good editor, and his reaction to all that was happening, the calmness of his outlook and the optimism regarding the future were definite inspiration to the men working under him. It was naturally a very trying time, when this journal was being produced under many. difficulties.
Howard was a glutton for work. A quick ier and a rapid thinker, he managed to cover an enormous amount of work in the course of a day, and there is little doubt in the minds of his staff that the manner in which he extended himself had a definite effect upon his health. Hard worker as he was, he admired the same quality in others and many of his staff were encouraged to greater efforts by the knowledge of the profound sympathy he had with them in the difficulties they encountered, and the risks they were running in the daily accumulation of news. The strain under which everyone laboured during the last months of 1937 undoubtedly told on him. He was due to have gone home on leave in May of this year, but his health was such that he deemed it advisable to leave earlier; hence his departure in December. During his stay here Howard made a large number of friends who came early to realize the sterling. @ualities of the man and editor. His quick understanding and ready sympathy earned him the regard of all those with whom he came in contact. It was correctly said at the time he came to occupy the chair left vacant by Green that he would have a difficult task in maintaining the high traditions of this journal so ably commenced by such men as "Bob" Little and so successfully carried on by the men who followed him. No one, it is believed, realized that more than Howard himself, and looking back over the past eight years it can be safely said that he not only maintained but added to the high tradition which has consistently dominated control of this journal. If he had to criticize Howard did it fearlessly, but fairly withal. Shanghai will be a definite loser by his retirement. The staff of this journal realize that they have lost a chief with whom it was a pleasure to work, whose high ideals were a constant inspiration and with whom friendship was indeed a great privilege. They will sincerely miss him, for he is the type of man which makes it an honour to be called a journalist, and this may be truly said of him—in his retirement Howard may be certain that he takes with him every sympathy in the cause of his resignation, and the knowledge that he was of very great assistance to Shanghai in a very grievous period of distress, and that though he will not return to Shanghai he leaves it the better for his sojourn here. This journal is sure that its readers will join with it in wishing Edwin Howard a speedy restoration to full health and the many more years of activity which should undoubtedly be his.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.