"Comparisons are odorous," according to Shakespeare although others who had coined the thought long before preferred to use the term" odious." This must have some bearing on a situation developing in Shanghai. The University of Oxford is advertising for the Professorship of Chinese which will become vacant on January 1 next with a stipend of £850 year. This does not necessarily mean that a Chinese will be appointed to the position. Dis tinguished foreigners have occupied this posi tion which requires the appointee to give instruction in the Chinese language and literature, with special reference to religion and philosophy, and of course extremely high academic honours are necessary to fill this position with ction, On the other hand, while few people at home are likely to be attracted to the course, in China there is an increasing demand for a knowledge of the English language which is now the lingua franco of the world, As a result, advertise ments have also appeared asking for the services of fully qualified English or American teachers of English but the terms are well at the other end of the scale. One advertisement offers a dollar an hour for these services. Another is a little better and offers $20 a month for four hours' tuition a week. Deducting bus, tram or rickshaw fares from this stipend the sum is fantastic. Is the study of Chinese worth so much and the study of English so little? It is a strange world, and if political developments continue as they are perhaps a more useful study would be Japanese. It might avoid some of our local incidents. 3
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.