Shanghai Starts Related Plan To Clear Up Slums

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 16, 20 January 1937, Page 9 (Supplement)

Shanghai Starts Related Plan To Clear Up Slums

SHANGHAI.—In undertaking an exhaustive investigation this autumn of the housing situation in Bhang.—, o international Settlement, the responsible authorities have apparently started a belated effort to square housing stanu aids with the economic life of the people. Preliminary investigations by persons within and without the Bnanghai Municipal Council empluy has slum conditions piouably worse than those of any other major city of the world. Much of the situation nas been brought about by lack of adequate control by tho Council of Buildings after construction; “temporary” changes in tho way of knocking down walls and eliminating staircases have turned houses into combination houscTact.Uij.es. “The housing standards of any community,” a Council employee wno win take part in the housing investigation told The Christian Bcienco Monitor, “are a reflection of general economic standards, and when an auluority igins to concern itself with tho housing of its.residents, even involuntarily to a degree as iu the present case, it is beginning to concern itself with the economic life of tho people. “The lack of concern in tho past on the yart ox'Bnangnai a iureign-udnunis-lered areas tor this significant aspect oi | governmental responsiuility has ueeu a cause of wonder to many students of affairs, both resident iu Bhaughai ami visitors from elsewhere. “it may be argued that China as *a nation' is coming belatedly into a recognition of the significance of • the economic life of the common people; but' this is little excuse for foreign administrators who have had it in their power to be concerned with these issues in their comparatively small area of responsibility for many years past. , “If the appointment "of a Housing Committee (lues iu fact make a beginning in the Council’s concern for an understanding of tho basic facts of the life of the Chinese people who make up the bulk of the Bettleinent population, rt will have performed a service far iu advance of those hopes originally held by the protagonists of better housing, important as this in itself is.”

Park Orator: “My friends, if we were to turn and look ourselves squarely iu the face, what should we find we needed most?” Voice from crowd: “A rubber neck.” <S» <£ <&> <3> Mother (to small daughter who has returned from tea with friends): “I hope you said ‘No, thank you/ oftener than ‘Yes,’ thank you.’ Little Mary: “Yes, I did. 1 hadn’t been eating more than half an hour before they began saying, ’Don’t you think you're eaten enough?’ And 1 said ’No, thank you/ every time.” a

A ship was wrecked on a desert island with a crew of twenty men and only one woman. Eventually they were rescued, and when the chief mate was recounting his experiences, one of his friends said: “Bit awkward only one woman and all those men. Was she chaste?' ’ The answer caiue,” iTes, all over the blinking island.”