Mar, 9 fare not in agreement with jews expressed in the following article, but they represent the ain-cere opinion of many. people. who lire entitled to be heard. In Notes fend Comments below will be fourd mother point of Many men beside the old Persian poet have dreamed that they would Shatter this sorry scheme of things And then, remouki i nearer to the heart's do sive, It has been the world's calamity that seldom has the day ut opcome to the man with when it.has come, the man has failed to match himself with the greatness of the day. The man and the hour met when Sir Christopher Wren planned to rebuild a nobler London after the great fire in 1666, The parsimony of the burgesses prevented Wren's plan from being executed and bequeathed to pos-tenty: the London we know with its narrow, crooked thorough-faves, its slums and its de ation, "instead of "the capital dreamed of by a genin After Hankow had been deatroyed by Yuan Shih-kai's tops in 1911 it was planned to rebuild the city on modern lines. A Commission was appointed, plans were drawn up and exhibited on the walls of the Reconstruction Bureau, which was situated in one of the few buildings remaining on what had been the principal street of the city. But, ogum, vested interests were too strong. Hankow was rebuilt on the old ramshackle lines and a heritage of muddle left for a more enlightened generation to clear away at. enormous expense. Possibly, the day of: clearance may be long of coming but, like many other good things, "come it will for a' that" though, in the meantime, disease and death will take toll of those compelled to live and move in the unhealthy surroundings of an overcrowded and sanitary city.
'A modern architect, looking over Shanghai, if he have but a tinge of Wren's genius in hi composition, must sigh for an opportunity to deal with its pr lems of congestion on the royal scale with which the Napoleons 1 and IIT rebuilt Paris, Great wide boulevards would run from beyond the southern boundary of the Chinese city out into the country far to the north of Chapei. Spacious streets would be carved in straight lines from the Bund to the hills and from Woosung westward towards Soochow. What the future of such a city would be imagination can but faintly visualize. Parks and open spaces would be planned while yet there is time. A Shanghai built on that scale would be a real Model_Settlement worthy to be the gateway of the Far East. Unhappily, unlike the new Delhi that is arising in India, or the capital of the Commonwealth of tralia, this Shanghai must re-' sain the city. of our dreams. The years will come and go and much water flow down. the Huangpu to the sea before even a faint approach is made-to any-realistic. 'The powers that be must struggle on to rectify things' as they are with such resources as are at their feommand: We may amuse ourselves with a vision, but practi-feal men have to do with such mundane realities as drains and street obstructions and the regulation of heterogeneous traffic.
And yet there is in the air 4 kind of adumbration of an attempt to realize a better Shan; hai, The Central Government have constituted, or are going to constitute, a "Special Shanghai [Munfefpality (Chinese)" and Ihave appointed two well known local business men, Messrs. Sun Pao-chi and Vu Ya-ching, Tupan Jand Huipan respectively. It is evidently a new departure, for municipal officials are not ust ly government appointees. Moreover, the names Tupan and Hui-pan have a somewhat ominous connotation. Our readers will bear us witness that we have time and again, in these col-jumps, expressed our regret that Chinese merchants, in good landing, took so little part in political affairs. It has always seemed to us very desirable that men with large business experience and capacity should have the opportunity of employing their talents in important administrative positions. Something of the kind appears to have happened in this instance and yet the first essay of the mense have named has been distinctly unfortunate. They have aroused much opposition by a proposal to establish an opium monopoly in the district in which they are_to exerci their functions of government, may be the malign influence of the names Tupan and Huipan that has led them to propose to imitate the worst actions of the Military Governors who raise money for the support of their lannies from the degradation of the people, It would be difficult, to imagine an act more fraught with disastrous possibilities than that outlined in the scheme suggested. The Settlement authorities wage an incessant war against opium smuggling and here we have two of the leading residents who, on their accession to power, indicate their intention to legalize the sale of the forbidden drug in territory continuous to our borders. We wonder how Mr. Alfred Sze and Mr. T. Z. Koo, China's delegates to the Geneva Conference, would explain this proposed action. They blandly explained to the Conference that China was anxious immediately to eradicate the poppy, root and branch, if were not prevented by the incidence of extraterritoriality. And here we'have two enlighten-fed gentlemen, appointed by the Central Government to inaugurate a new municipality in the area near, or around, the Settlement, and the first move they make is in the direction of establishing a monopoly for the sale of opium. It is true that we have no information concerning p: the projected Special Shanghai Municipality. Perhaps it is never meant to be more than a high-sounding title with which to conjure up pleasing fancies for the delectation of foreign diplomats, "but, judging by the above noted action of its Governors, ft is hardly likely to be a first' step towards the realization of the' dream of a better Shanghai.
PexiNo, March 7—The Cubinet this morning resolved 40 dismiss Chuan-yeh from his post of eommander of the Sth brigade, and also to abolish the vice-commandership of bandit suppression in Kiangst and Anhui, which General Li Chuanyeh. held' coneutrently.—Reuter's Pacific Service.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.