"Wall Street was amazed by the steadiness ities in London in the face of the krieg as compared with, the jittery New York Market."
'The foregoing is taken from the New York stock market report carried by the United Press, and coming from neutral sources con trests strangely with the enemy reports of alleged panic and dismay in Britain caused' by the continued air-raids. All the evidence goes to show that the British are bearing out what has been contended in this column fre~ quently since the commencement of the Spanish Civil War, and that is that the acroplane as a psychological military weapon has not all the terrifying qualities that some enthusiasts would claim for it. Madrid and Barcelona, comparatively undefended, stood up under a merciless hammering without thought of surrender, and what the Spaniards could do so also can the British. That the moral of the British has not yet been damaged is testified to by the "Globe Democrat" of St. Louis, which says "Outstanding encouragement in the aspect of the entire situation fs the splendid moral the British people. For weeks on end they have been visited by enemy bombers, each witnessing an increase in intensity and volume of the raids. Yet, they have stood up. gone about their business with as near an approach to normalcy as circumstances permit, reiterated their faith in the Government and their leaders and. by no sign Indicated that they are weakening."
There will be no weakening. People who have seen what has happened in Europe to those unfortunate nations which have fallen beneath the Nazi onrush, who are fighting for their very existence and everything which makes life dear to them, are not to be cowed by the enemy's aeroplanes no matter how many he may throw against them. They fare strengthened in their determination to continue to resist by the daily sight of their own men engaging the enemy before their very eyes and inflicting heavy damage upon the invaders. They see for themselves the accuracy of the British communiques, and are permitted to read the lies which the enemy. propagate. Thursday saw the biggest effort which the enemy has yet made by air against Britain. It will in all probability merely prove to be the forerunner of even greater formations of machines sent against Britain, but so long as the R.A. can continue to exact the same {oll in proportion as that which they have been securing since the air attacks first began, and so long as they can Keep their own losses down to the ratio they are at present the chances of ultimate victory must remain good. Fourteen per cent, of the number of planes which attacked on Thursday are known to have been destroyed. Such figures do not include those machines which by reason of damage have been unable to regain their bases, or which have received so much hurt as to be unsuitable for use for some time to come.
The same argument applies to British air casualties, it must be admitted, but so long as the ratios are preserved the enemy wre undoubtedly not getting the better of the ox= changes. That is evidenced by another important fact. It has of late been part of the enemy's propaganda to seck to belittle Britain's air defences, trying to bolster the effort by fantastic figures as to the number of British machines destroyed. That is an old family trick resorted to by the Germans when things are not going too well for them. When they are, the story is told of how the Germans have succeeded against almost it superable odds. Messages from German suggest that this week's air-raids are but part of the German High Command's carefully laid plans for the defeat of Britain, That they have always been believed to be, but that and the belittling of Britain's defences all part of the German scheme for keeping up the courage of their own people. There is no need for the British to boast. In fact 1ey will not do so. They are too busy de: voting all their energies towards defeating the enemy, and so determined to accept all sacrifice towards that end, that the Germans have a long way to go before they can do much damage to British moral. That fact is noted by neutral obser di may be taken as a completely accurate assessment of th light of the coming departure of the British battalions, could not accept the decision of present. By vote it was decided fo allot to the Japanese Fores that portion of "D" Sector flow occupied by the British Forces, and that the U. S. Forces be allotted Sector,—commonly known as the "down town" area—also taken care of at present by the British. "The Japanese representative voted against the above decision, while the Italian abstained from voting, the former reserving the right to submit alternative plans to the Defence Committee. In considering this question it needs to be borne in mind that the issue is not between nationalities, neither between the can, nor between th ing British Forces. hi jong been an int and decisions concerning it have always been taken by an mat body,—the Defence in view of the status of the Settlement, is as it should be, and it is unfortunate that this contention has up the present not, been als generally accepted as it should be. Yet when conditions which prevailed in Shanghai in 1927 are recalled, when the defence of Sh for the attention of more now represented by forces stationed here, that principle was clearly established, and there is nothing in the situation today to sux ciple should be abandoned. ished at also needs to be remembered.
Defence Force was primarily international body designed to protect Shanghai against external aggression, The maintenance of law and order within the boundaries of the Settlement was left to the 'Shanghai Municipal Police, the Police Spe~ cials, and if required the' Volunteers, and It was only in the ease of an emergency requiring even greater strength to contro! the situation that the Shanghai Defence Force were called upon. Tt is apparent that the intention was and still is that so long as the military situation requires no change the Shanghai Municipal Couneit is left as the sole administrator of the areas within the perimeter, and it is desirable that that state of affairs should continue. Taking that view of the situation it is undesirable that any ad~ justments should be made, which would in any way derogate from the authority of the Municipal Council, and if it Is impossible to seettre agreement "amongst the members of the Defence Force Committee, then the obvious solution is a compromise which would be fully in keeping with the principles Taid out above. That would involve the actual policing of the' sectors by the Shanghai Muni~ cipal Police Force, and even if that necessit~ fates an. increase in ils strength fact should be faced. In Scctor "D" they would be assisted by the members of the Special Police Force which has been agreed upon between the Municipal Council and Mayor Fu Sino-en, and which should be brought int existence without delay, while in the Sector the problem would be solved by addi tional recruitment for the Police.
Some such scheme is well worthy of con= sideration, and a reasonable time should be allowed to put it into operation and enable a fair decision to be arrived at as to its merits.
Until then it would be reasonable to accept the scheme approved by the majority at Thursday's meeting. The contention that, because Shang~ hai is within a Japanese occupied area, its emotionality should be in any way "impaired cannot for one moment be acceptable. Clearly the position of the British community in this matter must be that, while the troops sent here for their protection are being withdrawn, they are entitled to look to the Shanghai Defence Force as a whole for a continuance of that protection. and not to the troops of any particular nationality. They bbe, therefore, in no different. position that of any other community which docs not happen to be represented upon the De~ fence Committee, and the ideal solution of the present impasse seems to be that the Powers of the Municipal Council should be fully restored within its jurisdiction, and that only in the case of grave emergency should the various component parts of the Shanghai Defence Force be called upon to assist in the internal maintenance of law and order,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.