April 2.
Wien " few days ago we invited Chinese readers to write. freely to our correspondence: columns and promised them fair hearing, we were perfectly sincere. They have every right to express their views and we. wish to hear frankly what those views are, ax one way at least. of bringing about a better understanding between Chinese and foreigners. Furthermore. we do not as a rule wish to enter into controversy with the writers as to whether their views are reasonable or unreal sonable: that is a matter of opinion, to argue about which merely leads to bad feeling. But we cannot quite pass unnoticed the letter received yes-from "F.D.Z." on "Chinese, Gardens and Roads." Foi the attack it contained appears to us wholly unjustifiable and the terms used were such as this writer has not led us to expect of him and which we think he should not have used. of Shanghai, that we tyrannically and un-our love for us is like that of the wolf for the sheep." Who can guarantee," he asks, "that you may not hold these roads for ever and treat the real masters of the soil as slaves?" suffered at your hands." Now. taking the question of roads, might be supposed trol the above that the Council had gone out into the country and for-elbly expropriated the farmers te make the roads. What they did, of course, was to buy the land at prices named by owners; ind we have yet to learn that purchase on such terms is unjust or tyrannical whether" in We admit that Chinese may feel an indignity cin mot being [made free of the public gardens It is a question which has long Joccupied the minds of the forjeign authorities. But the tan-' ger of the gardens being swamp-/ed if thrown open to all involves far more than the Westerner's dielike of crowds: there are also considerations of health.
In any case, the prohibition does not justify "F.DZ." in using the terms he does. If Council rule is so "unjust and tyrant ical," why are there 30. many Chinese in Shanghai? Why do they not prefer the presumably Jiust and merciful rile of their town militarists? And if the love of the foreigner for the Chinese is like that of the wolf, for the sheep. how is it that in every famine or other occasion of public distress, foreign contributions for the relief of the Chinese victims 30 far exceed {those of the Chinese themselves.
We are quite ready to admit that in dealings between foreigners and Chinese there are two points of view and that the latter may be very different from the former und justified therein, But we appeal to fair-minded Chinese readers that. much of what "F.DZ." wrote yesterday is, to use no harsher: erin, nonsense, of which he ought, to feel ashamed,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.