Tue future of Shanghai is a theme upon which it is easy to descant to an unlimited extent, as we see from the letters on the subject which have occupied our columns since we first suggested the need of attention to our position in China, a week ago. Aprés moi lo deluge is, we regretfully admit, the motto of many of our most successful fortune-seekers; but still, among the crowd engaged in the all-absorbing incessant details of money-getting, which is after all the raison d'etre of our presence here, many men of sufficient public spirit exist, willing to sacrifice time and thought to averting the Trot encourages as to pursue the subject ible deluge; and knowledge of this and fulfil our promise of pointing out how, in our opinion, the views of the foreign community in China can be best given effect to, and our interests safeguarded for the future. The necessity of persistent concerted action is unquestioned; we have seen how spas-medic and fitful efforts have hitherto failed in arresting the loss of privileges we thought to be indisputable, and he little weight the voice of the commun' has ever held in influencing the action of the powers that guide its fate. Whence cores this lack of influence, and how our influence when required, can be most effectively asserted, are the points to be determined.
Cassandra dwells upon "amalgamation", a word in which he sums up the whole need of our position, and there is no doubt but that, if he means thereby the identification of our interests with those of the natives of the country, his principle is right; but he leaves us in the dark as to what he understands under the word, stating that it is useless at present to suggest any way in which an "amalgamation" policy might be safely inaugurated. We must do Cassandra the justice, however, of admitting that in his preceding advice that an active society should be constantly at work at home pressing our interests, and that such a society should be perseveringly supported here, he fines upon which we should proceed. ives us a valuable indication of the
But to succeed we must, here as in everything else, first know what we want and then set about getting it. As we fin have said before, the ratification of the Land Regulations appears to us be our most immediately pressing need, though fresh subjects are constantly coming up upon which an influential expression of opinion is indispensable, if a solution favourable to the community is to be remoted. In the Shanghai Cham-of Commerce we have a local organ that has its weight but which we should like to see established upon a somewhat broader basis. Its members comprise the forty principal firms in the place, but like another body of forty, it is at times narrow and not always practical in its views. We cannot but think that if it took in what are sometimes contemptuously styled the small fry, whose interests to them are as weighty as those of the magnates of trade, and whose practical insight is often clearer, it would effect more while its proceedings would undoubtedly arouse a more general interest. Of course it is free to every merchant here to join, but in these days of careful economy, sixty taels is a high fee for annual membership of a body where the advantages of membership are not tangibly apparent; it is true that this subscription covers the supply of six copies of the Chamber's circular, but these are not always desired, We believe that if the subscription were to be reduced to one-third or even one-quarter its present amount, and the circular published on an independent basis, the income would rather increase than diminish; large and small we have now over 300 established firms in Shanghai, nearly all of whom should be members of a really representative cosmopolitan chamber, and whose vote and voice should go to give life to the meetings and weight to their decisions. If membership of the local Chamber of Com-y merce Were to be regarded, as it should be, as a sine que non for every business firm here, we should at least have a means of discovering that unanimity of which we spoke before and, if it exists, of giving patent voice to it.
But it is not enough to organise ourselves here; we must make ourselves heard at' head-quarters. In the Straits Settlements Association in London, we have an instance of what can be done by a much less important community than our own. The Straits too are British colonies, and hence have not the precarious standing of settlements, pure and simple, such as ours, nor consequently the same urgent need for a vigilant safe-guarding of their interests. Yet they have in London a representative body which, composed as itis of old Straits residents, may be depended upon, not to only push their interests with vigour and conscientiousness; but what is more necessary still, understand their grievances and appreciate where the shoe pinches. It is from ignorance and not from ill-will that our Colonial and Foreign Offices sin against us, and that a Colony or Dependency wakes up some fine day and itself "given away," if not bodily, as has occurred on occasions, at least in its material, and may be vital, interests, Why, when we have at home such a number of wealthy and influential old China residents, should not these form themselves into a similar association, meet together for social as well as political purposes and keep themselves permanently en rapport with their success sors here? If not a pleasure, it is at. least a duty for those who have gone home successful to do their utmost to see thatthe conditions under which they succeeded are maintained unimpaired for their successors, A body so constituted carries the weight. of superior knowledge and would command the attention it deserves. Ministers and. P.s. would be gladly assisted by it in their judgments, while their commercial training might be trusted to lead, at least in cases where they were consulted, to treaties being worded in clear businesslike language. Intermittent and self-constituted representatives, however willing and able, are of little effect. What we need are permanent delegates. We see this in the recent Bouded Warehouse agitation. Mr. Keswick, Member of the Chamber of Commerce and representative of the leading British firm and so of the China community, succeeded in gaining the full support of the London Chamber, yet the whole result of the agitation seems to be a letter in our columns from the Director of the monopolist warehouses, defending the monopoly with arguments which, though they will not hold water, have so far been prsetically successful. As far as we now the subject is now shelved and it really seems as if, after all, as on so many other points, nothing else will be left us than quietly to accept our defeat and for the Chamber to accept, their snub. Such a home association of old China residents as we have sketched out need not be confined to London, though it is only right that London should take the lead. New York and Hamburg ought also to take their part and all these associations in the West, should be in intercommunication with and mutually support each other, For the antiquated notion that our national interests are antagonistic and that one man's gain is another's loss, though still upheld" by many leaders of - public opinion who should know better, is being fast exploded, and nothing would do more to give it its final quietus than a nexus of such associations as we have suggested.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.