July 2.
Tur strike of the rice shops began yesterday but, we believe, with no great enthusiasm on. the part of the strikers. There appears little' doubt that the movement is being swayed by a violent minority, whose reasons for objecting to registration are easily guessed. The statements made by one or two shopkeepers to our Chinese correspondent, that they struck because they were afraid of having their shops wrecked if they did not, are probably typical enough of many others. Needless to say, they have only to call in the police at the first sign of intimidation. But this is just what they will not do. We certainly do not advocate turning out the volunteers; but the thought occurs that if they were paraded in defence of free trade, their presence would do more to reassure the shopkeepers than many proclamations, Intimidation apart, there has been a good deal of misunderstanding among the Chinese generally as to the intention of the licensing, no doubt fomented by interested parties. Thus some Chinese speak of it as a tax and think that the Council enforce the licensing for the revenue to be got. At two dollars a licence the total return would be so small, that the absurdity of this idea ought to be apparent. However, it exists and might with advantage be explained away. Another very malignant rumour is that policemen will take advantage the registration to ''squeeze" shopkeepers, by threatening to report them as hoarders unless they ''stump up."' Cases of bribery among the police there have, unfortunately, been. But we make bold to say that the annals of the Shanghai police force are singularly clear in this respect, and surely make a fine showing as compared with those of many great towns. In any case as shopkeepers will be permitted to report their holdings of rice through their guilds, visits by the police will not be required so long as the guilds give correct information.
This is emphatically stated in the Council proclamation which we reproduced yesterday, and which ought to satisfy all the a|shopkeepers' misgivings. There is only one possible objection to an otherwise admirable document, that it may be a little too long. The gist of the whole measure can be put in a very few words.
During recent months prices of rice have fluctuated violently, often driven up to ex-, orbitant heights by reports of a shortage subsequently found to ibe wholly untrue.
To stop these, the Council wants to be able to tell at any moment exactly how much rive there is in Shanghai and thus to regulate the price. Hence the necessity of registering all rice dealers and_ shops. This need involve no interference with them in any way so long as they conduct themselves in the respectable manner habitual to them and all Chinese shopkeepers in Shanghai. In all reasonable concessions as to the carrying out of the terms of the licence the Council is ready to meet the shopkeepers' wishes. The undertaking, as reported yesterday, has been seized on by the extremists as a sign of weakening. We trust that the shopkeepers themselves will show a better appreciation of the community's interests and their own.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.