Association's Long Controversy with Chekiang Authorities on the New Charge 'The Mokanshan community are peaceful flock neither anxious nor constructed by nature to figure in the diplomatic limelight. No little henrtsearching has, ther: fore, been caused by the controversy into' which they have been drawn! with the Chekiang Government! over the question of an extra house-tax for extra police pro-ection, the more so that the community, being overwhelmingly missionary, is not rich and the proposed charge was a serious addition to the costs of summer} residence on the mount The Bandit Scare.
The tax, it may be recalled, was first announced last year. From time immemorial there has been a of soldiers on Mokanshan, lat "the Camp" at the foot of the} Grand Staircase, In view of the scare of brigands, the Chekiang authorities put extra police on the mountain last year, who were, we think, to be perpetually residence' and besides affording protection were to manage public wor vices, lighting, road maintenance, cle. The latter have always been kept up by the Association, and whatever may be said for the need of a police guard in summer time, there is certainly no call for one in winter, when the mountain ix deserted and the houses shut! up, with nothing in them that would attract brigands.
Attempts to make the Associa-ion agree to a new huse-tax to pay for the police were suecessfully resisted last year. They wore renewed this year bright curly; the As formed that the larger part of the - mone} necessary and the Association must put down the rest. Consular aid was invoked and a clear expression' of opinion was given that the right of the Chinese to i tax on the Association could not be admitted. So, after a vast amount of correspondence, the collection of the tax was waived for this year.
Make Terms.
At the same time it was pointed out to the Association that, if they wanted the police kept on the mountain, not to mention the general unpleasantness of living in a state of friction with the provincial authorities, they would he well advised to come to some agreement with Hangchow. Thereupon the Association drafted an agreement which, to put it mirdly could only be described as most
point at' issue and, generally. injur ing far beyond the speaking, giving away interests which wore never in question. The weakness of the draft has boon strongly represented to the Association by those best qualified to criticize and, although the question is to be discussed at the annual meeting of the Association, which takes place to-day, there should be little danger of the draft agreement going into force. At least if there is, householders should certainly rally round to demand another meeting, as the draft agveoment would never go} through if all interests concerned in it were properly alive to the position.
Compromise Advisable, The question is really one in which compromise is both feasible und advisable. For the second year now the Chekiang authorities have refrained, in response to the representations. made to them, from collecting the tax, which certainly suggests that they are open to reason. On the other liliand, the disturbed state of China is patent to all, and although one has not heard of any bandits on the Wukong side, there are probably people who' feel the happier in residence for the knowledge that the police are there on the mountain to scare' them away—especially as one hears that the officer in charge, of the police is a most charming man well known to many foreigners.
But the tax as originally suggested -was certainly not inconsiderable, and the Chekiang Government cannot be surprised if, in -the conditions generally prevailing in China, foreigners are instinctively suspicions of submitting to any, taxation. We cannot help thinking that if the Association proposed. to Hangchow that they should pay. something, but less than first, demanded—thé community being' in no sense a wealthy one—and that a fixed schedule of payments, neither to be departed from nor regarded as a precedent for other charges, should be laid down, the whole dispute could very easily be settled. the same time something should be done by the Association to get the interests of _nonmissionary landowners recognized. According to the old grant on which Mokanshan is held, they ought not to be there. But their presence has never been challenged they have now on their user" and of which no Chinese disputes. The ease is of the kind in which, if one side gives way 4 little, the other is sure to do so. saving in the expense of the police by withdrawing them in winter time, when there can surely be no need of them on the mountain,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.