London, Mar. 13.
Mr. De Valera returned to Dublin last night. He will confer with his colleagues in the Irish Free State concerning the latest questions that have arisen from the Anglo-Irish talks,—Reuter, In The Russian Colony l Br "mov"
To-morrow, exactly one year will have passed since articles dealing with the' life and interests of the local Russian colony, which numbers no less than 20,000 souls, began to appear regularly in the "North-China Daily News." A similar feature vas started by a local American publication, and recently a Russian column has appeared in yet another cumal. The question thus offers itself: why this interest in the Russian community? Firstly, perhaps, because numerically Russians constitute a good half of the white foreign popula-ion of Shanghai, if not slightly more than a half. Then, since the revolution of 1917, the interest of all mankind has been centred upon Russi:
hat terrifying yet vast social experiment Russia is carrying out before the whole world, forces attention on Russians, and, perhaps, makes Shanghailanders want to understand, from Russians living in their' own city, the soul of the nation at present drawn into this intriguing and alarming experiment.
Thousands of books have been written not only about the Russian revolution but about Russia in general—about her history, her literature, her philosophy—and these books, published in many languages and in many countries, always find readers. Again, one cannot deny that Russian culture and Russian civilization are quite original and peculiar. Geographically, Russia presents a huge continent, an area constituting, as Russians like to say, one sixth of the globe; stretching, in spite of all the territorial paring after the World War, from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, from the polar regions to Turkey, from Leningrad to the borders of Afghanistan. This is a whole world of the East-West—half of Russia remains in Europe while the other half rambles over Asia—a sort of separate continent of Eurasia, as the popular* defenders of the "Eurasian theer; once taught, In Shanghai Here in Shanghai there is, we believe, yet another reason for the interest in Russians, Arriving! there fifteen years ago, without mea without knowledge of English, the Russian mass was forced to turn to every possible method of earning a livelihood; and Russians managed to—had to—penetrate into practically every sphere of endeavour Shanghai offered. To-day they can be seen not only along Avenue Joffre, but they are met everywhere; and the interest in them is, therefore, understandable. Previously, in reading about Russians, it was mainly in reports of the criminal court. Weekly illumination of the life of the colony makes it clear that besides mendicants and those whom the sorry lot of exiles drives constantly into the prisoners' jock, Russians in Shanghai carry on active and fruitful work among themselves, Further Emigration The thought of going to some other country is a constant companion to certain emigrants. In this respect they are like the "rolling grass" of Russian steppes—grass which never stays long on the same spot. To-of course, the situation has changed somewhat, but during the first two years. after their flight abroad, emigrants sat on their packed bundles, pondering heavily on "when to go and where to go." Some—especially fter the experiences of last year in Shanghai—have not stopped pondering yet. As justification for their hitherto rather theoretical meditaons, the information came suddenly we or three months ago that the Re Institute for International Affairs in London has started research nto the condition of Russians in the Far East, entrusting the compilation of data to the local Emigrants' Committee. When this matter slipped into the back of the mind, Russian newspapers received were from Paris stating that this research is no myth, and concerns not only Russians in China but political emigres all over the world. The Russian colony in Paris was stirred by this news. Exhaustive interview with Sir John Hope-Simpson, the distinguished member of the Institute who went to Paris purposely, bron special articles on the subject, accounts of special receptions were given front-page space in emigrant newspapers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.