Aug 6
Tue statement by the Briti and French authorities in Shameen which we publish to-Gay is the more welcome in view of the extremely scanty and inadequate news hitherto received regardingAhe strike, It cer-tumly does nothing to lessen one's feeling of the pity and indeed, it must be said, the needlessness of the whole disturbance. By the showing of this statement the strike was within an ace of being settled five days ager it had begun,—Agreemen® broke down over the refusal of the Shameen authorities to reinstate the "police; and thus the quarrel dragged on for three weeks and still shows no sign of coming to end, 'There is one very curious statement which will attract general attention and sup-polies the keynote to the obstinacy: of the struggle, 'The strikers' delesrates, we read, objected that it was unreasonable not to reinstate the police because "thes: lad left under compulsion." connexion with this it will be noticed that the servants went out on the afternoon of July 15 without any notice of protest having been registered against the regulations. In other words, the strike is practically confessed us having been from the first the work of agitators and intimidators. With such people there can be no parleying.
There is a good deal of previous history necessary to a complete understanding of the situation, on which the statement does not touch. It is an old rule that Shameen is not to be used as a thoroughfare for Chinese and that the waterfront is reserved for the use of Europeans. For some time this rule has been more honottred in the breach than in the observance. Finally it was decided by the foreign authorities of Shameen to draft new regulations and to enforce them.
These regulations were sent to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to be translated, in order that the Chinese version might be so worded as to contain the Toast possibility of offence to Chinese. Then came the bomb out rage at the Hotel Victoria and this was felt to be a suitable opportunity for bringing the new regulations into force. Whether, as originally drafted, they provided that Chinese coming into Shameen after 9 pin. must carry passports with their photographs upon them, we are not. quite clear. At any rate that rule was included among the regulations which were to come -into force on August 1. As we said, in writing about the strike last week; the idea of. passports
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.