Council Publicity fne to the effect that Mr dW. Erasers who The small paragraph appearing recent!
{for some years has been in charge of publicity fcr "the. Council is "cing retired from the unice. service st the end of this month fustides further reference to. the question of Council publicity, for it has to be etd at once that i this change Involves a further reduction the amount of information made available regarding the doings of the Council, it is a step which, da the not too distant future, may be heavily regretted. The long sirugsle for greater Publicity concerning Goumell doings resulted in 1801 in the formation of " Press Information [Bureau under ar. George" Burton 'Sayer. the five years he held office he had.an uphill fight to do. what he concslved to Ue his duly Doth to the Cotnell and. the. ratepayers, and that/he did so wel, despite the very apparent opposition of some' of the other departments of the municipal service, redounds greatly. fis credit. he Bureau however, was, no Popular in the service, and, when the economy Exe was being entiuslasically. wielded, those who "disapproved of the new institution fuceeeded in wiping it out, leaving "whatever ppubliety the Council chose' 10 liberate. inthe hands of Mi Fraser who is to. be complimented fon the work he has done. That he did. not Schleve the. results it wes originally" hoped would be attained is no fault of his own, but Is rather to be ateibuted to the inveterate flisike of publicity" which has' marked the municipal counci since its very inception, The point haz been made before, "but needs Feemphasisng, that a great dear of the ertilsm {o which the Council fs subjected Is very often wrong. That is because there is no'means of making the average ratepayer acquainted with even, the fundamentals of, municipal. adminis ffation int city, like Shanghai. Even" that criticism is allowed to go unchecked, and the fesilt Ie that there is in existence. in' Shanghai small amount of distrust which ought not {o exist Let there be no mistake about it; the ult between those who seek to control' the {dministration of the. International Settlement {nd a large portion of the foreign ratepayers great as {0 be almost unbridgeable. by methods such a5 are at present being followed.
with the disappearance of Mr. Fraser from the secretariat, Shanghai in again to see. the Council revert to the secrecy which enshrouded it'up to a brief nine years ago a mistake of major dimensions will have een' made. The occidental voters. rallied solidly" behind. the Gouncit in the endeavour to maintain the status (quo. There is no Justifeation for believing. that they will always respond 20" enthusiastically, fud the only means of making sure. that. they will: fs bythe adoption of such methods "et Publicity as will remove existing distrust and ensure ile replacement by a grenter degree of confidence then at present exist, The Weather Father Gherzi, of Siccawei Observatory, was {in-fine felt ie atthe Rotary Club when he expounded the mysteries of the weather to an interested gathering and, what is more, left them with the impression when they departed that they really understand something about this eternal mystery. After a couple decades searching the skies, reading the portents, battling with the perversities and funeontrollable courses of typhoons—as well as Janswering courteously the tedious questions asked by the newspapers—Father Gherzi knows this subject thoroughly. Tt is a tribute to the wonderful democracy of Shanghai, which: permits absolutely unbridled freedom of speech and print that he was permitted to make this speech. If he had been in England, some deep. [dark dungeon or the Tower of London would have been reserved for him for the weather in England is now a zealously guarded state secret. It was only recently that the newspapers were permitted to publish any details of the Jgreat freeze although people struggled through feet of snow outside their houses and could not. fighting head of a fighting nation cannot be disputed. History, however, has rushed past him, fand for many years he has been living in a sori fof anticclimax: which has served to remove much of the esteem in which he was held at the fend of the last war. It is indeed doubtful when ther he would now command the confidence of the British as he did then, or that he is any better fitted for the task of leading the country: to victory than are other men already in office. The caution of Mr. Neville Chamberlain, and the downrightness of Mr. Winston Churchill are better suited to the temperament of the British than ts the volatility of Mr. Lloyd George, while his recent utterances leave the uncomfortable impression that he would end this war ju an endeavour to bring about what he considers a [just peace. That would be a negotiated one which would undoubtedly permit Germany. make preparations for another attempt to secure domination in Europe, with all the possibilities fof another generation having to face another fwar. That the Allied Governments are determined to stop once and for all, and there is in their ranks no room for men who cannot accept the view that all further fear of German aggression must be removed from the realm of practical polities, and that Europe shall be given {the longest period possible in which to recover {from the grievous hurt which has already been {inflicted upon it. The conclusion has sadly to Ibe reached that Mr. Lloyd George is not the man either to lead the Empire in war, or to be entrusted with the task of obtaining peace for it. The issues between the Allies and the Nazis so cleanly cut, the determination of the people put an end to all possibility of further Jaggression so firm, that it would be a hideous mistake to offer office to a man who might not [devote all his energies to the fulfilment of that decision.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.