Aug. 31.
The police are to be congratulated on having laid bare the activities of the Intelligence and Publicity Bureau of the Nationalist Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jinkee Road: the very prominence of the position chosen for it would help to disarm attention. Yesterday the Chinese press continued to enlarge on the seriousness of the incident and the redress which Dr. C, T. Wang was to demand of the Senior Consul. But this appears likely to be no more than an attempt to save face. Dr. Wang must be well aware that the Bureau had no business whatever in the Settlement and that for an office under his Ministry to be disseminating propaganda against Japan was most improper. In the circumstances, the Nanking officials will be' wise to say as little as possible about the affair. The Council were well within their rights in closing the Bureau and. seizing its documents, and should be fully supported in any further action of a like nature.
For many deeadex past the Council have successfully main: tained their right to prevent what was known as "functioning in the Settlement" by Chinese officials and their underlings, which indeed is a legitimate interpretation of the fact of a certain area having been set aside for foreign residence and control. Twenty years ago the old Taotai's yamen (subsequently the Bureau of Foreign Affairs) was only an office for the convenience of business between the Taotai and the Consuls, but Taotai always lived in the Ci nese city. When Jui Cheng. subsequently the last Viceroy Wuchang, ne Taotai. health led to his ing at the Bubbling Well amen and the same avas extended successors. For a Nationalist Minister to have an office in Shanghai for the transaction of recognized, business, and of which the Council are fully aware, is unobjectionable. But the Intelligence and Publicity Bureau was a very. different matter. Again, looking back to the past, we may find the Council repeatedly resisting attempts at taxation by the Chinese Government within the Settlement.
From time to time, the Chinese Papers would announce that, such-and-such a tax was to be collected from a certain date, sometimes with the addition that the Consuls had given their consent. Always such notices were followed by a public warn-jing from the Council that attempts of this kind would not be permitted, and Chinese sidents were urged to inform the police of anyone trying to collect [taxation from them.
To-day there is unfortunately ground for believing that the Nationalist, or Kiangsu Provincial Government, tax-collectors are functioning widely inside the Settlement, We had an insight into this in the recent incident of a tobacco-tax collector holding up a motor-lorry at the Ché- kiang Road crossing of Nanking: Road, because the driver refused to accompany him to the tax bureau for payment demanded on some packages of cigarettes, when, we understand, it was shown that these collectors acy tually attend in the factories to impose taxation before the goods go out of the premises, Tt is, perhaps, an arguable point' whether' Chinese, by virtue of residence in the International Settlement, are exempt from the excise which their compatriots in Chapei and Nantao have to pay: to say that they are exempt, is to confer on them extraterritorial rights which they can hardly claim. The question, however, is one for negotiation, on the basis that such taxation ought to be collected, if at all, by the Municipal Council, It is entirely irregular and indeed most mischievous that outside collector should come in and exact pai ment, Nobody can tell who they are or whether they represent any constituted authority and the consequent danger to peace and order is considerable. It is much to be hoped that the Coun-will do all in their power to put a stop to this freebooting.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.