Berore ratepayers assemble at the Town Hall this afternoon it may be well to sum up the main points on the two great questions which they have to decide: Chinese representation on the Council and finance. As regards the former the Council are proposing an Advisory Committee. An amendment is to be moved in favour of Chinese councillors, and before that amendment was published we were writing in support of the same principle. The best argument for an Advisory Committee is that it would provide a training ground against the day of direct representation. On the other hand, it would be difficult to define the Committee's duties satisfactorily; it would be an isolated body devoid of the moral support of actual partnership in the Council and thus subject to all kinds of outside influences; and in this way, in times of popular agitation, a deadlock might arise which only the employment of force could solve. Two Chinese councillors would be infinitely more gratifying to Chinese amour propre; they would be able to put the Chinese case on any matter under diseussion more directly and effectively than any Advisory Committee could do; and when, after full de-hate, the matter was decided by the majority, they would be able to shelter themselves behind that vote against attempted pressure from any quarter, with full knowledge of the reasons which had prompted it.
The strongest objection to Chinese councillors is that they would use information. gained at Council meetings for their own enrichment. We believe that the chances of that happening are little, if at all greater, with Chinese councillors than with Chinese committee men. Even as matters stand. it is practically impossible to prevent speculators from _getting wind of what the Council debates with the most careful secracy. And if a Chinese councillor were suspected of graft, things could be made so hot for him that he would suffer irretrievable loss of face. For this question of "squeeze" has been very freely, even brutally canvassed of late,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.