July 21.
We publish to-day an interview with General Shing Shi-lien, in Iwhjch he emphatically reiterates} the already emphatic statements lof his proclamations. In the} third one of these, republished by said plainly that "all lawless persons indesirables of any associ on violating the law would be shot. In the fourth proclamation issued yesterday he adds:
There are some who think that 1
Jam not serious in my statements when T'say that all lawbreakers will lbe executed, but I can assure them that T am determined to carry out]
words to the fullest extent according to the authority invested jin me. If any undesirables break the law they will themselves be responsible for the consequence. We leannot easily overlook such acts.
you did not know before, you know now. Let all read, hear and JAnd these threats he repeats in slightly different words to our! representative. Yet the plain fact is that during the past few' Jdays there has been a violent freerudescence of intimidation and kidnapping, and although the Fengtien authorities have been! alert to release men whose where-
Jabouts could be pointed out, there has as yet been no sign of that instant retribution which the proclamations promise and the jenine unquestionably deserves.
It must be admitted that Gen-
Jeral Shing is in a difficult position. The momentum which the strike has acquired during its weeks of unchecked progress is 50 Great and far-reaching that to Ihave applied the brifke*too suddenly might have had worse than Ino effect. But these proclamations have now been before the ublic for nearly a fortnight. There can be no question but that everybody has read them. And during that fortnight, as strike pay has dwindled more and more, workers have become increasingly anxious to get back to regular work, Tt will be remembered that when General Shing's first proclamation came out, there was marked igiprovement in Chapel jand Nentao and practically no kidnappings were recorded for, Now they have become worse than ever. It seems prob-lable that the agitators, who at] first feared the loss to themselves that would come from collapse of the strike and consequent cesisation of the strike subscriptions Jon which they have grown fat, re now in dread of loss of face, if work is resumed and they, the! leaders, can show no gains, nothing indeed but the terrible] losses which their wickedness has inflicted on their fellow-country-Linen, throughout all the province! jof Kiangsu. Seeing, therefore, that General Shing's proclama-ions have not been followed by the actual punishment of any of! their number, the agitators would seem to have concluded that there! jis nothing for them to fear and hence the disgraceful acts record-led elsewhere. The time has come when General Shing should surely' lundeceive them. The names of those who control the intimidation are perfectly well known. There are not, we understand, more than a dozen or fourteen of them. It these men were put in gaol and a kidnapper or two were shot, one may be sure that the! ftranquillizing effect would be! instantaneous.
In more ways than one, it is iclear- that promoters of the strike jand: boycott are moving heaven land earth to keep item alive. We Publish to-day a report of a meeting of "die-hards" of the Chinese" Chamber of Commerce headed by Mr. Fong Chu-pa—the man who pretended on May 31 that he only signed the resolution unfavour of a general strike under duress, bat now comes out in his true colours. Mr. Fong presses for a boycott, fines on those who do business' with British and Japanese and confiscation of any forbidden goods they may hold. (This might be commended to (General Shing: it surely seems to come within the terms of his proclamations). Against Mr. Fong! jwe know that there is a large party, of moderates "who would Imake peace. But the moderates} have proved a broken reed more than once before now and we are by no means past the time when. jo noisy minority can browbeat a whole meeting.
The policy of the extremists is quite clear: they must keep the strike going by intimidation and kidnapping; and they must try to wring some sort of concession lout of the foreigners on some of ithe demands, totally unconnected with the events of May 30, which they have 0 loudly vociferated, jin order to justify themselves. As for the first part of their game, we earnestly hope that General Shing will put a stop to it in the way that his proclamations have, threatened. The situation from his own point of view is really serious: at any moment there might be a riot in Chapel of unpaid, unwilling strikers and food shops looted, And for the rest, it is for foreigners to stand firm. There is to be a judicial inquiry into the case of May 30 jand its findings will be as loyally by the Council as the] British Government has promised to accept them. And when order is restored there will be no difficulty in meeting the Chinese on lall reasonable claims. But for ithe moment the one essential is that the agitators should be beaten, the men who have grown wich on funds too lightly subseribed for strikers, who have inflicted and are inflicting incalculable suffering on thousands jof humble Chinese, who have dealt their country's business such [blow as it will take many months ito overcome. These men's ill-gotten gains, the wealth they have stolen from the strike chest, can hardly be recovered from them.
jut at least let them not recover face" as well.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.