'THE Special Committee asked for by the Ratepayers. to enquire into the so-called Shooting Committee Incident has published its finding and a very interesting document it is.
Knowing the parts of which the Committee was composed one might spend a not unprofitable hour in subjecting the finding to an analysis partly personal, partly subjective.
"Here," one might say, "speaks discipline; there may be detected the still small voice of the official conscience."
"In this sentence is heard the clarion tone of one willing to obey and accustomed to command; in that, doubtful of its ground." the equivocal note of the department _"Here rises the bright!, red blood of the insulted gentleman; there lies the dull red tape of the government office."
We have no desire to quarrel with the Committee or its finding. Under the conditions of government in Shanghai certain things may be done, certain things may be forbidden, and certain things winked at. Our constitution partakes of the irregularity whic characterises that of rear Britain. To say that a coach and horses might be driven bodily through the Land Regulations would be to put the matter proverbially but inadequately, since the elasticity of their spaces would allow of the passage of an ironclad. Of the British Constitution, Bagehot says:—" We have made, or rather stumbled on, a Constitution srhich—though full of eve: incidental species of defect—thoug] of the worst workmanship, in all out-of-the-way matters, of any constitution in the world—yet has two capital merits; it contains a simple, efficient part which, on occa~ sion, and when wanted, can work more simply and easily, and better than any instrument of government that has yet been tried."
In great part this might be applied to Shanghai. The regulations under which we exist are not perfect per se, but they have that elasticity which freedom from unnecessary restraint requires, and though in' many in-Stances they do not expressly allow of certain practices, they provide excuses for winking at them, and that is really all that we require under the circumstances.
No one need wonder, therefore, at the three-sided finding of the Special Committee, and we should have had no serious cause to refer to it, but for the statement that the S.V.C. is not a strictly military body. In certain senses, easily recognisable from the preceding remarks, this -is perfectly true. But there isa sense in which the words may be taken that make them not merely mischievous, but destructive. Most of our manly residents are or have been members of the Corps, and so far as we are aware, there has never been any question on the part of any of them respecting the strictly military nature of their service when on duty. A reverend speaker at the Ratepayers' meeting said in explanation of one of his statements which had been attacked "T did not mean to say it was nota military matter, but that these gentlemen (the Shooting Committee) were civilians, and in dealing with the matter they should be treated as civilians, and not altogether as military."
We know of no volunteer who would endorse that statement. Indeed, up to the present, and we still believe at the present, there is not a man in the Corps who is not prepared in all matters of this discipline to declare himself. amenable to military law. He has this advantage over the regular soldier: he can resign at any moment. But no man worth his salt, or rather his uniform, would care to shield himself from the consequences of insubordination by the whine of the civilian. He becomes a soldier for manly reasons. He believes it a duty to assist in the defence of the defenceless; he likes the rifle practice; he may even appreciate the uniform; but for whatever reason he enrols himself, he wants to feel part and parcel of a military force amenable to discipline, and ready to obey.
Were it to get abroad amongst the community that this is not the feeling which actuated the Corps as a whole we must prepare ourselves for a resignation en masse of the best men, possibly for the utter extinction of the Corps. Much depends upon the construction placed on the term "strictly." It will be sufficient for discipline if the Corps and the Council let it be thoroughly understood by all and sundry that the 8.V.C. when engaged in its official duties is a strictly military force, and we understand steps are being taken to ensure that this be done. arisen would be not a little amazing That the question should ever have
were we not cognisant of the official difficulties before referred to. The British Government does not usually send officers hundreds of miles to inspect, advise, and report upon bodies that are other than strictly military. Neither is it likely to make presents of batteries of guns to men under no adequate control. Itis hardly conceivable that it would present 30,000 rounds of ball car-bridge per annum to a mere Rifle Club. Tndeed since the Lee-Metford has come into use, the continuance the grant has been made conditional upon the strict efficiency of the Corps. The War Office reply to the General_in Hongkong states that "Lord Lansdowne has decided to revive the yearly free grant of 30,000 rounds of ball ammunition to, the Corps subject to the maintenance of a standard of efficiency, satisfactory to yourself and proved by a yearly inspection under your orders."
This, we take it, should suffice to remove any misunderstanding arising from the wording of the Special Committee's Report.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.