28 MARCH 1914, Page 16

THE PUBLIC GARDENS OF SHANGHAI.

Pro en Ernes or en “Srscr.vos."I Sln,—In a Report made by Mr. G. Lewes Dickinson to the Trustees of the Albert Kahn Travelling Fellowships dated November, 1913, occurs the following statement: "And in the public garden of Shanghai, so I am told, there is a notice, 'No Dogs or Chinese Admitted.'" As this appeared to need confirmation, since the writer, who gives us to understand that he has been in Shanghai, apparently did not take the trouble to ascertain whether what he had been told was true or not, I have procured an accurate account of what the identie notices, posted at each of the five entrances to the public gardens on Shanghai Bend, do actually state; as follows " (1) These gardens are reserved exclusively for the Foreign Community. (2) No dogs or bicycles are admitted. (7) Children unaccompanied by foreigners are not allowed in the gardens. (8) No Indians are admitted unless respectably dressed." My correspondent adds that Rules 3, 4, 5, and 6 deal with flower-picking, the bandstand, amahs (i.e., native nurses), children, chairs, 8cc. A gentleman who has only recently returned from Shanghai informs me that on one occasion when he happened to be in the gardens he saw several Chinese there listening to the band. These facts ought to suffice to explode the myth in