Burning Issue

Shanghai's realistic firemen, who seldom risk confronting a spreading blaze but prefer to douse burned-out wreckage in its wake, last week proved as sensitive as they are sensible. In consequence of repeated (though unsubstantiated) charges that they demanded goldbar bribes to answer a New Year's Day call, the city's 514 fire fighters resigned in a body.

Their stated dilemma : if they entered a burning building, they would be accused of theft; if they did not, they would be accused of negligence and bribery.

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