Mar. 19
Pustic opinion in the foreign community of Shanghai is growing perceptibly hotter under the] events of recent days, the calm insolence of the General Labour!
Union, the cold-blooded murders} leommitted by its bravoes, he determination of the Provisional Court to do nothing to assist the police in keeping order. To alli this must now be added the as-founding outrage and robbery of, Mr. Geddes, held up for nearly! twenty-four hours in his own house by armed men until they jean cash the cheque they have forced him-to sign at the point fof the pistol, We congratulate Mr. Geddes' sincerely on his escape, as also on his resolution in coming forward at once to make his misadventure as public jas possible for a warning to others. The simplicity of the trick, given the necessary conditions of a lonely man in lonely house, is the secret of its success, But the general feeling will be that it never must happen: again Insthe precise form in which ithe outrage has been worked upon Mr. Geddes, it is not very likely to do so. It is a trick not easily to be repeated, once people Jare warned, But the evil brains which planned it will find other ays, just as the General Labour Union will go on murdering innocent workmen just so long as no drastic measures are taken to teach them that it does not pay. Terrorism will continue until it has been out-terrorized. Confronted with the actual fact of 'a strike, we do not doubt that the Council will act firmly, just we have every confidence that its organization for carrying on all public services has been well prepared. But the mistake lies in waiting to be attacked. Four for five days have passed since the General Labour Union announced their intention of calling a strike when the moment suited them. And day by day they have published further announcements that it would be this day or that day, the obvious: intention being to keep the whole community on tenterhooks and by this means and by further cold-blooded murders to increase that state of alarm which is most favourable to their enterprise. Surely it is not necessary, certainly it is most unwise, to eave the game so entirely in the hands of the G. L. U. We can understand that the Council do not wish to add to public neryonsness when outwardly things are quiet enough; and they are not unnaturally apprehensive of alienating public sympathy broad by measures which at a distance might seem unnecessary. The answer to this is that those who would—be alienated are already disposed think as badly of Shang! 18 they can, while the outward appearance of calm in the Settlement, at least among the Chin is superficial. Strong measures against the cutthroats would not increase panic, rather would they relieve it.
Admittedly it is difficult proceed against the General La-jour Union, who have no regular headquarters and whose members hold sudden meetings in tea houses or even at street corners and disperse before they; have attracted attention. But there are other means that can be employed; we do not propose to detail them because the Settlement authorities are as well aware of them as everyone else; if they are not, there are plenty of people who can give them useful suggestions; and the element of surprise is everything in dealing with agitators and Communist agents. But, one_point which may be emphasized is that! the case for a relentless offensive against troublemakers is not
munity but of the Chines only, that of the foreign com. ni that in a very wide sense.
Communists' success is due to the fact that so far they have had no conspicuous failure. "The last attempted general strike, jed, because it was fought; but the failure was not obvious widely enough to have the effect it should, Undoubtedly the working classes do not wish to strike, to know the wretchedness of eking out existence on the miserable strike pay allowed them, to pile up more debts on the top of those from two years ago still unpaid. But the prestige which the Communists: have gained by their unbroken spell of luck Jmakes them appear almost omnipotent. If they suffered one notable reverse, their sun would be not far from setting. If a general strike were fought with all the severity which could in fact be employed, and smashed, the effect for good would be felt far beyond Shanghai. But to that end exceptional measures are needed and indifference to every, other consideration except the prime necessity of terrifying the terrorists and securing the peace and safety of the well-disposed. It is useless to wait and parry each blow as it falls, We must first at the Communists and keep on hitting. So only will the spell they have cast upon central China be broken,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.