Feb. 24.
Resipests who take something; more than what may be called! the merely objurgatory interest in} Council doings will hardly be sur-; prised to hear that the composi-j tion of the next Council presents; a problem. That is, wnbappily, becoming the normal state. There; is no particular difficulty in get ting suitable men as members. But the very exacting position of, chairman is another matter. Mr./ Brooke-Smith is going Home leave: he has served two years' as chairman and well deserves a. rest. Mr. Mackay is also retire; ing, and neither Jardine's nor Butterfield's are putting up a can-' didate. Of the remaining mem-, pers, all of whom, we understand, ship and of his other qualifications there can be no doubt. Unluckily he, also, may be going Home in the autumn. Mr. Simms or Mr.
Lowson would assuredly make good chairmen, but it is questionable whether their private business would permit them to take the post. Mr. Lyman is spoken of as a very able councillor but, having been coapted since the last election, he has hardly yet served long enough at work with which, it is estimated, a full year is not too long to make a man thoroughly familiar. With the other councillors the same obstacle presents itself as in the case of Mr. Simms and Mr. Lowson, private business.
The obvious solution and the one which it is to be hoped will ultimately be taken is that Mr. Girardet should postpone his departure for London for some months., Were it only a question of ordinary Home leave, we may rest assured he would do so. But, by what!we understand, it is a matter of business policy decided by the London office of his firm, and it therefore remains that all possible representations should be made them, if feasible, to change or postpone for a little time their present intention. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the firms having large interests in the Far East must seriously consider their attitude in respect of the municipal government of Shanghai. Some of these firms can show a fine record of disinterested work for the good of the community. Again and again they have supplied members and chairmen of the Council. Other firms, it has regretfully to be observed have appeared less perceptive of the duties of citizenship. In days gone by the position of chairman was more easily filled because the work was easier. To-day, with the enormous growth and complexity of Shanghai, the chair-j manship of the Municipal Council demands fully half of a man's business time and every year it ks more. No head of a firm can provide an additional member in the managers' room to attend to its work. In other cities there is usually a leisured class which can be drawn upon for such posts. Here there is no such class. That is the position as it is already} keenly felt and will become more and more pressing with each year that passes.
Banking and Local Trade In congratulating the Hongkong Shanghai Bank on its wonderfully fine showing for the past year, special attention may be drawn to Mr. Edkins' mention of the activity of loca] trade in_the Far East. The volume of Chinese trade in spite of political confusion is a commonplace among paradoxes. But it is worth notice that a British bank has been able to ce-operate in that trade to such as extent that even the harassing fluctuations of silver and the slump in world trade have not been able to impair its prosperity. It has been remarked more than once that the policy of the Hongkong Shanghai Bank is wholly framed in the Far East, and it says much for the ability of the managers that they should have thus been able to capture so much Chinese business. "Which simply means that they have learnt how to do it and to inspire absolute confidence in the Chinese in their manner of doing. That, however, is not quite so simple as some people appear to think and Wayfoong is to be complimented accordingly. Another point that may be mentioned is the clear determination of the Consortium to act only in concert with Chinese banks in any financial enterprise. That is a sufficient answer to the detractors who continue to insinuate that the Consortium seeks to exploit China and it is an important step on the road to making China financially independent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.