Listening to the King's Christmas message has become so closely associated with the annual festivities that a Christmas Day will in the future seem, strange to all those who have waited to hear the homely words from the English monarch, if the day has to pass without them. King George V made it an event of the year, and memory likes to dwell on the fact that the homeliest of the year's festivities brought the British Commonwealth together in spirit as it were to a huge family fireside while the father addressed his good wishes to them all, If the present kings reference to a "tradition so personal" to King George V adumbrates a discontinuance of a wholly delightful custom, it will be deeply regretted, though in the circumstances every sympathy will be felt with the reasons which may make such a step necessary, In Shanghai it was particularly pleasing to hear His Majesty, especially in times such as these, for it brought 4o Britons realization of the fact that though at present they are not within the confines of Empire, they are still members of it. There were many who heard the message direct, but others had to depend ripon a relay. To those responsible for bringing it to Shanghai by that method those, who have not yet secured machines of wide enough range will be as grateful this year as they have been in the past. It is one of those little acts which performed in so international a community as Shanghai have about them a peculiar. graciousness. If, the practice is ultimately abandoned, and it is earnestly hoped it will not be, may it not be urged that some adequate substitute might be arranged, that someone, as far above politics as the King, should undertake the broadcasting of his message? It seems that such a personage should not, in these days, be very herd to find.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.