Wuat has become of the r port of the Judicial Inquiry, Commission on the affair of May]
2 It is three weeks to-day since we know that the report was sent to the Diplomatic Body: actually it may have been posted a day or two earlier: of three weeks we are sure by the date of Sir Henry Gollan's departui What has been happening those three precious weeks'
rom something said by Mr. Austen Chamber! in the! House of Commons there appeared a possibility that the report had been sent Home; but this, are assured, is quite unlikely, So, then, we are to conclude thst the report remains somewhere in the foggy depths of Legation Quarter. We have heard, on good authority, of meetings being held about it. But of the nature of those meetings or of when the report may be expected, there is absolutely no information.
As is well recognized by everybody in Shanghai, it was a-grave blunder that the report was ever! sent to Peking. It ought to have been read out by the Commis sioners in the Town Hall, just like any decision reserved' by judge. If that was not according to the terms of reference of the Commissioners' appointment, there was plenty of time to have had the matter put right before their inquiry was ended. For, unfortunately, the Diplomatic Body are highly "suspect" among the Chinese in all things connected with reports on the events of May 30. The injustice of this suspicion does not affect its reality, or the consequent necessity of recognizing its existence and taking particular care that no further colour should be given to it. Already an American news agency has kindly said that there are three reports, of which that of the American Commissioner was of a highly inconvenient nature, and that the Ministers had to edit the three into one; and although this piece of imaginativeness was modified next day—as the late Keir Hardie said, a lie goes round the truth is putting on Seeing that the report did go to Peking, the obvious course to have taken was instantaneous publication so that there might be no ground for suspicion of editing or cookery. Of course, if any such attempt were made, the Commissioners might, we trust, be relied on to expose it. But in China we have not only to ensure that things are as they should be; we have to take the utmost precautions against any possibility of insinuation that they were ever anything eli This report is of the most vital importance not only to Shangh: but to foreign communities everywhere in China, We say "foreign," not merely Brit because all are directly or indirectly concerned in a settlement of the affair of May 30; and it must clearly be borne in mind that no settlement has yet! taken place. The poignancy of the incident has been somewhat blunted by the return to work of labourers, by the tariff conference, by civil war. But th appearance of peace is only superficial. If any diplomatist fondly imagines that he has only to waste enough time and the affair will blow over and be forgotten, he deludes himself and is doing his fellow-countrymen in China grievous harm, It might, perhaps, have blown over, if the Judicial Inquiry had never been held. But it was, quite rightly, held; it did its work with the mos praiseworthy thorough-ind we are all only anxious to have its report, to act upon it—as the Council has pledged itself to do—and so] open the way. to peace and reconciliation. At the present time delegates from Hongkong and Canton are trying to come to terms. Their task would be immensely facilitated by publication of the report; and all through China merchants, who are only anxious to resume normal business relationships, would be immeasurably encour-egod thereto if only the affair of May 30 were finally out of the way.
These most pressing considerations must be well understood by the Diplomatic Body and it is inconceivable why so much time has been wasted. In fact, 30 impossible is it to believe that anyone in China can be responsible for the holding up of the report, that we can only con-Jecture that the Diplomatic Body' have, in some obscure way, been held back by their respective Governments. If that be the explanation, one is constrained to isk whether the Ministers have telegraphed to draw attention ta the serious harm that is being done by delay of publication. Because upon them rests the real responsibility. Whatever. the: report may say, nothing can be worse than the suspense in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.