Aug. 6.
THE Chinese Members of Parliament who took the resolution to leave the north have now been in Shanghai for more than three weeks. For so long have they been a source of discord and unrest locally, and that can be said to be the one solitary contribution they have made to the country's politics. With that frenzy which characterizes China for. starting societies and bureaux they have established the ''Preparatory Office for the Removal of Parliament to Shanghai'', but the only tangible work it seems to have done was the other day to pay the M.P.'s a much needed stipend of $150 each. As part of the preparation for the establishment of Parliament here this has been most disappointing to the Members, especially as they have been apprised that those who have remained in the Tsao Kun following are receiving about twice that sum. So an insistent demand for tynds is heard on all hands. the most naive appeal of all has been to the people of the southwest provinces, the argument to contribute being based on the blameless conduct of the Shanghai M.P.'s. ''We are without sin', they related in their telegram, ''and have left Peking simply because we opposed militarism and fought for the benefit of the people according to our consciences." Then follows the comforting guarantee that the money will be repaid out of the public taxes. Optimism must be a plant of hardy growth in the southwest if on the strength of such security people can be induced to lend money to the M.P.'s. Certainly in Shanghai the security would not pass muster, but then, as the M.P.'s are probably realizing more and more every day, Shanghai thinks along commercial lines, and so thinking has by no means given the M.P.'s that cordial welcome which they had hoped for.
Good reason exists for believing that Shanghai has by no means come up to the expectations of the M.P.'s. At the very outset the notes of welcome were almost drowned by howls of disapproval, and in the days which have passed matters have not sensibly improved. There have been attempts to curb the opposition on the part of the local organizations which have expressed it, but they have not been altogether successful, The merchant classes have been polite enough to' give tea-parties to their provincial representatives, but it is no secret that they would rather the Parlia-montanans were anywhere but in Shanghai. The M.P.'s have reiterated the excellence of their motives and actions, but have not advanced a single step in public favour, and it is evident that grave doubts afe now entering their minds as to the advisability of the action they took in coming to Shanghai. Only a
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.