The suggestion made by a correspondent today that the authorities should warn the public in the event of future floods what routes are Still possible for traffic merits serious consideration. The police of the three areas which make Shanghai are in a position to be able to report without much difficulty the condition of the roads under their control They can estimate whether a particular thoroughfare is safe for small cars or whether the driver runs the risk of his engine stalling. And they can be assured of the ce-operation of local radio stations in broadcasting this very practical news to the public. Many an accident would have been avoided if such a practice had been adopted when it became obvious, as it did early on Tuesday, that Shanghai was in for some really serious inundations. It is often the case that constructive suggestions such as this one are made too late for anything to be done about them. But in this instance, with the water persisting in many areas, there is still time for giving warning. The state of the streets was most deceptive yesterday, for example. Dry stretches led the unwary to believe that the floods were over, and it was only through hard and time-wasting experience that many Shang-hollanders learnt that such was not the case. Warnings broadcast before the average office-goer had left his home yesterday morning would have saved a great deal of inconvenience. For, while some routes were comparatively clear, others were so deeply flooded as to be only passable by the larger types of vehicles. The collection of the necessary information should not place too much extra work on the shoulders of the police. Constables on patrol might be instructed to telephone in the data needed. These could be relayed to some central clearing office, whence a report could be circulated to all broadcasting stations. There should be no obstacles to an exchange of information between the police of the three areas which can-mot be overcome, and the result should prove of great benefit to all classes and nationalities of this cosmopolitan community. In addition it should do much to simplify the traffic problem, since it would lessen the number of cars stalled. During the last few days, the: ye been many traffic hold-ups due to cars failing in the mid-die of the roads.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.