(Semetine Commissioner of the By Brio-Gex. C, D. Daves Shanghai Municipal Police)
Presumably the future control and government of Shanghai, or, hoped, of a "Greater" Shanghai to include the present French Con-ossian, the Chinese city, and various Chinese suburbs, will eventually be come a matter for separate diseussion between China and the Great Powers outside' the ordinary diplomatic channel The issues at stake are so serious and wide-reaching and the difficulties pf finding a satisfactory method. of Joint control so intricate that only 1 special commission can adequate cal with them, Much has recent been done by the Shanghai 'Municipal Council to lay a foundation for mutual ce-operation. But to build a bridge which will bear the Weight of joint' control will tax to the utmost the goodwill of both sides.
Ro. the minds of many leading politicians in China, extraterritoriality is still the red vag to the bull, For this reason mutual ea-operation for the control and government, of Greater Shanghai by Chinese and foreigners must be sured before any definite sugge tions can be officially made, So immense are the general issues at stake that for some time to come there can be no question of surren-Yering sole control of Shanghai to any purely Chinese authority. The Nationalist, Government, by its date of December 28 last, di clared extra-territoriality abolished from January 1, 1980, Therefore, abso facto, it is demanding sole control of all foreign Treaty Ports and trade Settlements, To this mandate "the British Government has. replied by two aides-mémoire explicitly explaining the British position in view of such a°demand. Both have been published.
On the other hand, we have Dr. Hu Shih, that brilliant exponent of the Chinese Renaissance and all that 4s best in the new spirit, counselling ce-operation, He points out that what Japan has done in fifty years Without losing her indigenous culture, China could do and live again, rejuvenated with enhanced vitality, The real problem in China to-aay," he said lately, "is that our old culture is no longer capable of meeting the needs of the nation and solving the tremendously dificult problems of the age, It is no longer capable of dealing with the prob! of Poverty, Disease, Ignorance and Corruption—the four cardinal enemies of the nation. The duty of the statesman and the leader of thought is to recognize these enemies of the country and to seek to subjugate them. And in th fight against them, they have perfect right to draw on the past experiences and cultural achievement of the whole world, The rower civilization of the Modern World is the magazine house of weapons and ammunition for the warrior to choose from and use, It furnishes the stone and brick and the patterns for the Chinese builder to. pick and take for his gigantic edifice."
Unfortunately for the Chinese people, the spirit of Dr. Hu Shih ds far removed from that of most Jeading Chinese politicians Were men of outstanding vision and wide views such as are his in a position to translate their ideas into ction, the future status of Shanghai, not to say of China itself, would be a much simpler matter to solve.
'Before any near approach is made towards examining details for the future mutual control and government of Shanghai," or, as' it will eventually become, Greater Shing~ thai, it will be essential to recure an atmosphere of reciprocity, Chinese and foreign. Union one side, at present, in spite of the cles avowed intention of Great Britain and Amerien to assist in every way the reunification of China, there remains still a suspicion of the faith of all foreign Powers. On the other, foreign residents in China, particn!- arly in such flourishing trade centres as Shanghai, Tientsin, and Canton shameen), are suspicious of any attempt to hand over these rich, foreign-made, up-to-date trade centres to the sole control of any.
Chinese Government. They have before their eves the pitiful fate of 'Hankow. "The "Mayor" of a Greater Shanghai and his chosen subordinates would,. they believe, be puppets acting under the direct control of the Chinese Government. Suck men, they are convinced by years of first-hand experience, possess, as' yet, neither the ability nor the training to govern a vast. modern municipality whose annual! budget already, under the Municipal Council, runs into millions of dollars a year. The handling of such a budget and of the general finances of Shanghai is one of the items which will call for the utmost care in considering future joint adminis. tration, Some three years ago writer suggested in' the "Time. that Greater Shanghai should be made a free city, 3 inviolability of which might be' guaranteed by the Great Powers. There is no less need to-day for some such discrimination. 'The object of the suggestion was, of course, to remove any possibility of attack by militarist leaders eager to profit' by its—to them—almost incredible wealth. To any militarist, the control of a Greater Shanghai would mean a veritable gold min Intelligent Chinese know we! what has been done in the past by foreigners, both for the Inter-rational Settlement and for the French Concession at Shanghai.
equally well aware that guch results could never have been reached under any purely Chinese Jurisdiction or administration which has yet matured. But they naturally object to voicing publicly any such opinions, for fear of become marked men. Greater Shangh with all its manifold problems of municipal administration, will tax to the full the governing powers of highly-trained experts.——_Old-fashioned or even present-day Chin" ere methods left to themsel will speedily bring te ruin this wonderful monument of foreign enterprise and efficiency, It may be as well to recall what has been done by the London County Council.
From its ranks has come more than one well-'Amown leader fully equipped by its ing to take a prominent position in public life, political or otherwise.
Before attempting to forecast what form the future control and government of Greater Shai tone essential condition sumed. This condition is the existence of some kind of Central Government in China. But who can say what government will be functioning in China five, ten, of Shanghai, and on the south fifteen years from now? obviously be worse than hand over the control of Greater Shanghai to a government which may be swept away to-me vw, a government whose chief and cabinet might be forced to fly for their lives abroad, as has nearly happened already. Such a course is not likely to appeal to the responsible statesmen representing the Great Powers.
The present Nationalist Government, we are sometimes informed, controls and governs a unified Shing thi of crore, merely a lo parter. which has been made tuse of by every revolutionary government in history until it, mad> good—or disappeared. To-day in China such Language cannot be taken seriously. The Nationalist Government is, no doubt, doing its dest, but as yet it does not represent the people of "China. Like the pianist in the mining saloon, it asks the audience not to shoot at it. But this is hardly sufficient. It is unnecessary hero to labour the point, but ample evidence is forthcoming to prove that barely half a dozen provinces to-day recognize the control of Nanking. Amongst these happens to be included for the time being that province in which Shangly hai is situated, but a swing of the pendulum in Chinese polities may at any time rudely disturb the exis: ing equilibrium. The present International Settlement at Shanghai would certainly be the immedi objective for any victorious militarist, or for any party which was able to overthrow the current government. Who, in China, can guarantee to-day the future security of Greater Shanghai?
The Chinese people, now suffering g0 terribly from the voiversal lapse from law and order, are fully awarz
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.