We have, no wish to hamper those who at.the expense of much personal and gratuitous trouble are working for what they believe to be the good of the com. inanity, At the same time it is quite possible for the beat tions in the: world to'rnn hand.in-baud with much wrongheadedness; a: is after all the community whose interests are at stake, who have to pay for the blanders of the executive, and on whom the brent: and barden' of. all such errors eventually mist fall. Woe never had a mention' of recurring to the, uew Police scheme: after: all that was said about—it some months: ago.
Tt! was} then fally gone into, in pablic vote, and in the press, Everything that could be said for it and against it was said, To the accusation that the men were underpaid and discontented in consequence, it was replied that ticue of them were underpaid and only a fow black sheep among them were discontented.' Iugenious calculations were Laid before us in support of the former proposition, while the statement that the alleged discontent was simply fomented by certain men whose characters wore bad was frankly accepted asa plausibloexplanation of the difficulty. "The scheme," said the Chairman of the Watch Committee, in effect, "is a good one. Don't condemn it off-hand. Give it a fair ti we ask no more, Then, if; it does not answer"—But it was scarcely to be admitted that the scheme would not answer. All it wanted was a fair field and no favour and it has had it, And what has boon the result? Seven men' of those imported from England have left the force from® discontent, atid eight more are id to have avowed their intention' of doing so as soon as they have scraped together a sufficient number of dollars. We do not count a man named Hall, as' his resignation was proffered for family reasons alone, Nor do we count the desertions which are said to have taken place among men engaged from Hongkong. Take the seven from London and Manchester who have either de-sorted, resigned, or been dit Exch of those men cost the Mani £70 on"orrival in Shanghai, so that we "have a clear loss of close on 'Tis, 2,000 to begin with. If this defect tion' spreads, and olliers carry out their threat of leaving too, the force will be very seriously thinned, and that with. Gut any' possibility of recovering the nioney that has been spent. Now our contention is that it is not to be expected that the' comniunity' should sit tamely by arid see all this mismanagement going on, without making some protest. The Watch Committes have demanded a fair trinl'for their'schem right to turn round and say, "Oh, these men were all black sheep. Weare only too glad to have got rid of them." IE so, a heavy responsibility rests apon the Council. Why did they got black sheep out from England? And, having got them, why did they not try to turn them into white ones? It is easy to say that discontent is fomented by these black sheep; but from what doos the discontent arize in the first instance?
And what does the Captaiu-Superintendent mean by saying he is unable to assign any reason for the desertions that have taken place? Now the Council may ignore it or not, as they like; but there has always been one definite reason assigned by the men for their discontent,—the fact that, in their own belief, they are underpaid. We shall of ce be told, for the twentieth time, that it is only those unfortunate scapegoats the black sheep who are discoutented. Well, was it only the black sheep who solicited the services of Mr. Wainewright to bring their grief wees before the ratepayers' meeting about four months ago? Was not the document then drawn up by them signed by every one of the foreign constables brought out from England excepting those who bad been promoted to the rauk of sergeants or acting sergeants Were all these black sheep? And are all the men who have deserted or resigned, or who are said to be cotitemplating desertion or resignation, black sheep too? E these Inst make at the lowest computation fifteen men, large proportion of those brought out from England; of those from Hongkong we have kept no count. Ib certainly seems to us, as those interested in the maintenance of an efficient police-force, that it would Lave been better policy to have devoted part of the money that has been thus wasted and wantonly thrown away, to such an in-rengo in the men's pay as would render them not only efficient but cheerful in the discharge of their duties. It is impossible to admire the obstinate tenacity with which the Watch Committee have and they have had it.' Perks; policemen may be ix aay that that trial his been given at their expense.' We have' been told of all the am ud relaxations provided for the force by the beneficence of the Committee: 'Tle men are to go in for gymiinstica, for rowing, for orioket, and a good deal besides. 'That la all' very well, but it does not' touch the point, It has too much the appearance of a sop to Cerberus to recommiiéiid itself as a public measure, atid is not likely to assuage the disiafaotion of those who, rightly or ingly, consider' themselves underpaid. 'The Council, as far as we oan judge, have already incurred a clear' loss of 'T's, 2,000 on the seven men' who' have left, to say nothing of the desertions among: the Hongkong men arid these' which are still looming in the fatare, these' circum-} stanges we do' hot th Uiey' have any tuck to the letter of their programme, in the teeth of this moat unsatisfactory state of affairs. They have had the trial they demanded for their scheme, and the result, hitherto at any rate, has been unsatisfactory in the most important particular of all,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.