Sept. Ti, Waite it is gratify to see! a further step made by the! Diplomatic Body towards the holding of the Judicial Inquiry which we have all along advocate ed—this in the presentation of their letter to. the Chinese Government which we reported yesterday—one point stands out} in so great prominence as affecting the safety of Shanghai that not be allowed to pass.
"that the Chief of Police, McEuen, will be suspended without prejudice until the completion of the inquiry." Thi means that the Commissioner of Police, as soon as the inquiry starts, is to be removed from duty, and not until the findings are given out may he be reinstated. What we must ask as ratepayers of the Settlement is the effect this is going to have on the men, some three or four thousand of them, under his control? That fact of suspension, call it "without prejudice" as the Diplomatic Body does or put it] under any other form, is bound! to have a grave influence upon authority, his prestige and his personal relations with the great body of men with whom he has been intimately and honorably associated for so many years. And what then for the safety of the Settlement? Will it ever be possible for him to assume the same command which he has exercised hitherto? This is no personal matter, but one affecting the authority of every' police officer, whether Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner, Superintendent or otherwise, and we as ratepayers have a xight to ask that our interests in this matter shall be safeguarded. We know how much we owe to the Police Force, and anything that tends to minimize its efficiency or loyalty' we ought to protest against. This is certainly a case for such protest.
Why this special clause was inserted is quite well-known. It is advanced as a guarantee: of good faith, but it is too much to be feared that the Diplomatic Body has again failed to read another significance into it which will be grasped by every Chinese—that it is a confession of weakness. Why should there be either} of these two elements connected with a judicial inquiry when men of the highest standing have been appointed to carry it out? We prepared to abide by but there should] be no preliminary jockeying for good-will or anything else, and there was obviously no necessity' for the insertion of such a clause.
To the legal mind, of course, a suspension "without prejudice" has the full meaning which it states, but to others it is very' different. In fact it might not be putting it too highly if stated that in too many minds it will have already prejudiced the case and pre-judged an individual. We must look at this matter not {rom the point of view of the diplomats in Peking but from that of ourselves as wage-earners in Shanghai, and then get down to the common talk which goes about of finding a scapegoat for the May 30 affair. Why should there be a scapegoat? The Judicial Inquiry has not been appointed for that object, but to get at the truth of the matter, and if anybody has been at fault it will state Then it will vest with the authori ties to take whatever measures are necessary in dealing with the responsible party or parties no matter who they be. What we do feet impelled to point out is that, such a result being fully realized, it is unfair if not disastrous for the Diplomatic Body to call for this suspension, knowing, as we do, what it means and the direction' in which it will lead.
Under rules in force in the Indian Police—the largest police organization in the world and certainly one of the most, if not the most efficient—suspension from duty is defined as "removal of an officer from duty who is guilty or reasonably suspected of quilt in case of gross misconduct." We can see here yet more clearly the danger which this act of the Diplomatic Body is likely to bring about. Of the twelve hundred or so Indians in the service a certain proportion are bound to have a smattering] of the law prevailing in In and the knowledge they have will be passed on by them and construed in ways which it is too much to be feared will tend to undermine discipline. Not' only ave the Indian police liable to be affected, but the very numer-cus Indian watchmen who perform a useful duty in our midst. -And worst of all it may spread much further. For the considerations we have stated, we can only feel that this clause in the Judicial Inquiry letter is in the highest degree unfortunate. (Phe inquiry would in no way have been hampered had this stipulation been omitted; the taking of evidence and so forth would. have gone on in exactly the same way; there would have been just as full and free scope for obtaining it; and at the same time there would have been no danger of under-mining the authority of those at the -head of the. police.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.