Pr a statement made on the local rice situation yesterday Sir Robert Calder-Marshall, Chairman of the Municipal Council's Supplies Sub-Committee, alluded to the recent interview given by Mayor Fu Siao-en to the "North-China Daily News" and declared that his committee preferred to face criticism rather than to advise the Council to take a wrong step. The Mayor, he said, had not only conveyed the impression that the Council was inactive, but had also intimated that it was unwilling to cooperate with neighbouring authorities. The full text of the statement follows:
"IL is not customary for the Chair= i_of Council Committees to explain the policy of such Committees in communiques to the press. The position of the Supplies Committee, however, is peculiar in that it is not tone of the regular Couneit Commit tees, and, moreover, T have been asked to give this explanation of the Policy of my Committee by the Chairman of 'Council' and by the Secretary and Commissioner General. would emphasize that 1 have no desire to criticize other authorities, who have their own special dimeulies, My purpose is merely to explain the views and the policy of my Com mittee,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.