The third element in the Fifth Moon Festival is found in the explanation given by the Chinese. namely. that it commemorates the death of the upright minister Chu Yuan of the State of Chu late in the Chou Dynasty some 500 years before the Christian era. who committed suicide by drowning in despair over the official corruption of his da This he explained in his famous poem entitled Li Sao which he penned before drowning himself. The people were so perturbed by his tragic demise that they offered sacrifices to his homeless spirit in the way of food thrown into the water.
One day the legend runs. his spirit appeared to some devote and informed them that, as their sacrifices were always devoured by a large reptile in the water. they were no use to him. He told them to wrap the rice they offered in silk and bind the packets with five threads each of a different colour. Such packets. he said, the reptile would not dare to touch. This is the origin of the three-cornered packets of glutinous rice. which are eaten by the Chinese at this time as well as being thrown into' creeks and rivers to appease the spirits of Chu Yuan and all other people who have been drowned and so have not been properly buried in their ancestral graveyards. Only today the broad leaves of reeds and the stalks of sedge take the place respectively of the silk wrappings and coloured threads ordered by Chu Yuan. The lanterns floated upon the waters at night during this festival are to light the way of these wandering homeless spirits velt has armed himself with full em. sident Rooseergeney powers to facilitate mobilization of the United States' vast creative forces."
The "Straits Times" declared that "in everything but the strictest legal sense the speech was a declaration of war... President Roosevelt went to the extreme limit short of such a commitment."
The editorial discussed at length Article TIT of the tripartite pact whose invocation might involve Japan in hostilities with the United States in the event of an American declaration of war on Germany, The editorial] pointed out that "a dificult problem will be solved: by Japan escaping automatic involvement in the war" in the event Germany. rather than the United States. declared war. The editorial said such a German declaration would not disturb President Roosevelt.—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.