ever, has the result of Municipal Council elections caused such a sensation as it has this year. Changes were expected, but searcely to the extent realized. Feelings as regards Mr. Arnhold's reverse are somewhat mixed. If we differed from him on a question of policy and method, it is only fair to recognize that he was a diligent worker who gave freely of his time to public affairs. There is a belief in some quarters that he was the victim of an entirely untrue rumour to the effect that his firm was interested in the Telephone Company tenders, and that this re-Port cost him the Japanese vot If this is the explanation of his defeat, there is no question that he had hard luck. The strength of the Japanese element must be taken into account in future elections. We are informed on very excellent authority that a meeting was held last Saturday night at the Japanese Club at which it was decided how Japanese electors should vote, and these instructions were implicitly obeyed. In contrast, an advertisement was published on Tuesday emphasizing that British ratepayers do not as a rule poll more than fifty per cent. of their strength. Where this advertisement came from, we have no idea, nor do we know what proportion of the British vote was cast this year. But. the strength of what would be a comparatively small body of voters if every ratepayer registered vote, who act) unitedly under a mot dordre, something not tobe left out of jcaleulation, But the significance of the vote cast in this election, considered as a whole, is' not diminished by any accidental features. The motives of each particular voter may vary. In the mass they may be summed up asa general desire for new blood and a new policy. The situation perhaps may be compared to that in the last General Election in Great Britain. Nobody could fairly say that the Conservatives had done badly, but their administration was undistinguished and appeared to lack grip. Shanghai to-day has reached a turning point in its history. Its rulers have to com-Jbine the difficult task of being at once conciliatory and decided, and there is undoubtedly a general feeling that decision has been unnecessarily sacrificed to the supposed claims of conciliation, Too much tendency to compromise has been apparent, too much readiness to smooth matters over, to give way a little, to risk anything-rather than the possibility of a clash, to yield now with the pious hope of better luck in days to come. Against this, it cannot be too often emphasized that the Council is still the only government carrying the burden of maining law and order in Shangand that it must show fearless resolution in defending the rights which are so essential to the discharge of its responsibil jes. The outgoing Councillors will no doubt protest that they are as eager as anyone to de-fond the integrity of Shanghai. One answer to this, at least, would be that they have not sufficiently let the public know what they were doing. There is undoubtedly a strong desire on the public's part that Council} meetings should be open to the press. Probably a resolution to this effect will be' moved at the next ratepayers meeting, and there is no space at present to deal with a question which is certainly a complicated -one. But, generally speaking, the ratepayers demand greater pubplicity, faller knowledge of what is going on; and the Council's hands would be immeasurably strengthened by keeping the community regularly acquainted with what is taking place, In the main we think that the results of the elections are decidedly for the good. For some time past there has been a rising feeling that, in the common phrase, the Council needed "shake-up," and assuredly such has been administered. Although the proportion of new Councillors to the whole is unusually large the volume of ability is undoubted, and every man in next year's Council will have the stimulus of knowing that much is expected of him, There is an opportunity to-day as perhaps never before for a wise, constructive policy. Half our difficulties with the Chinese Government are due to grievances on the part of the lott for which it would be impossible to deny a ground of reason, but which have never yet been adequately met. Take for example, the liability of Chinese living in the foreign settlements to pay national taxation. In bygone years the Council always resisted the admission of tax-gatherers from beyond Settlement limits owing to the abuses which would undoubtedly follow in their train, and which we believe Chinese officials would not di: pute. The only alternative that the Council should collect such taxes themselves, since it was never intended that residence in the foreign settlements should exempt Chinese from such dues as are fairly imposed upon their fellows outside, This is one point at which it would be possible to meet Chinese wishes not only without loss of the Council's position but probably with added strength to its independence. In some respec the methods of the widow petitioning the unjust judge may prove necessary. In' this connection it is to be remembered that foreign—governments are many and frequently do not know whom to believe in respect of Shanghai's affairs. But the Council are one; they can speak with a united voi act as a single body, and it will be their own fault if they do not have the ratepayers united~ ly behind them, The upshot of Mr. Stanley Baldwin's manifesto on the relations of the Conservatives to Lord Beaverbrook's and Lord Rothermere's United Empire Party is clear enough, although of course Opposition newspapers would do all they could to magnify signs of difference. Mr. Baldwin has accepted the principle of free trade within. the Empire, only making reservation on the question of taxing food stuffs until the people shall have had an opportunity of expressing their vie For which purpose he advocates a referendum, with the clear stipulation that this shall have no political significance: it would be merely an expression of opinion on the economic point and would not in any way involve a. defeat of the Government. These are good tactics all round. N thing could be more unpopular than a referendum by which hung the danger of a fresh election perhaps within a few weeks of one just fought. And nothing could be more perilous to the chances of Empire eandidates than to present—their opponents with the old parrot ery of "your food will cost you more." It is conceivable that it would pay the Mother Country to tax even foodstuffs from the Dominions, But the question has been so hopelessly distorted and So misleading an idea of. it presented by political passion, that: it should be jealously excluded
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.