What with sickness and the unusual circumstance of the war, neither the side which represented Shanghai nor Hongkong in the interport matches in Association football or Rugby football, can be said to have been fully up to the strength each might have put out. It can safely be said, however, that in both games, a higher standard of football was shown than Shanghai has been accustomed to see this season. Shanghai strength in the "soccer" world was proved by the victories scored by the interport eleven and the combined foreigners' eleven, while the tie in the match with the Chinese need not be emphasized, owing to the adverse comment some of the tactics employed generally aroused. In the Rugby and Association football interport, the actual standards of play were not high, but both matches were remarkable for hard football and keen play throughout. In the Rugby match, the ground conditions were against spectacular play, but Hongkong nevertheless—and it turned out wisely—persisted in the orthodox tactics for a dry day, and won through the superior genius of their outsides. This genius was well demonstrated against the formidable American Marines, who were given a lesson in the finer shades of the game which should bene&t them for future: matches. The "soccer" interport suffered from much the same handicap. The game was remarkable more for the strong defence on both sides than for the attack. As a result, there was little which could be called spectacular or thrilling in the encounter, which was, nevertheless, interesting. The match between the Hongkong team and the combined foreign team, which was virtually Shanghai's second choice provided a much better brand of football, and showed that too much emphasis on defence to the expense of attack does not always pay. In every case criticisms of the referees should be deprecated. Their tasks were hard ones, and the decisions which have been questioned it the press and by close followers of the game on the side-lines, were probably as near the truth as any decisions could be in the circumstances. One point, however: surely the police, who can turn out squads to see that there are no rice riots outside shops selling that commodity cheap to the poorer population and can line them up in queues, can do the same thing at football matches, and prevent he undignified and sometimes dangerous "serums" which took place outside the Canidrome on the occasion of the interport match German Propaganda The German propaganda machine has not lost any time in making what it believes to be the fullest possible use of the alleged British persecution of the Irish Republican Army, arising out of the refusal of the Government to release the bodies of Barnes and Richards sentenced to death for bombing outrages in which innocent persons were killed, and for which they were duly executed last week. The German version of the matter goes on to state that refusal was prompted by a veto from Scotland Yard which feared that the release of the two bodies would lead to anti-British demonstrations in Eire, and then concludes pathetically that the bodies of the two Irishmen will therefore, remain in their graves in the prison Cemetery of Birmingham. The suggestion that the British Government attitude is based upon a Scotland Yard veto, is just as accurate as a recent reference by the same propaganda ministry to dockyards at Coventry. In both cases there is no such animal. Men found guilty of murder and executed in Great Britain are buried within the precincts of the prison in which they were e: cuted. It is indeed part of their sentence and mot one handred vetos of Scotland Yard could affect the matter one way or another. Barnes and Richardson, no matter what political belief they thought they were furthering, were in the zyes of British law criminals, who by their act brought about the deaths of people of whom they knew nothing and against whom they had no possible grievance whatever. Murder, for whatever reason it is committed, is just plain, simple murder, and those guilty of the crime must suffer the penalty prescribed by the' law for it. Casement was found guilty of treason
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.