July 20.
The Municipal Council's reply the deluge of mendacious propaganda that has been oppos-jed to the two per cent. increase in rates, disposes of the majority Jof the war cries of the trouble makers with such a finality that little sincere criticism of the increase is to be expected in the future from the great body of sensible Chinese commercial people. We must all be prepared to find, however, that this: will not make much perceptible difference in the tone or substance of the propaganda agai the Council nor serve materially the campaign.
position to the rates did not emanate, in the first instance, jérom the Chinese commercial community, as we have a hun-Jdred ways of. knowing, but like! all these obstructive demonsjdrations is a purely artificial hullabaloo raised by the usual unrepresentative and ever-host-' fto be im league with the" pelts ile minority, which now happen:
tical group that is trying to loot [the Settlement under our noses, A Chinese official in the Council's place would prove this in [purely Chinese fashion by put-iting an and to the whole clamour within twenty-four hours, The promoters: would either beg for }grace, fade away or go the way the Communists have recently, gone between the. rising and the setting of a single sun, which the populace applauded the local ruler's efficiency and determina~ tion, But the foreigner does not do things this way, and the masses of. the sensible Chinese people never repudiate minority group that can success: fully heckle the foreigner; 0 the clamour goes on and " will be in no wise abated by an appeal to reason nor by the count lering of mendacity with statements*of fact. When there is Ino reasonable motive behind movement like this, it is futile to attempt to stem it with argument, and such a statement [as the Council has given out is only useful in that it makes ithe right and wrong of the case clear to the onlooking world as preliminary to the introduction of more effective tactics, This being the case, we must Jvegret that the Council's recog-Jnition of the character of the movement in opposition to the Hinereased rates was not made clearer, particularly in the paragraph that dealt with Chinese representation on the Council. We shall not feel that the Council is irrevocably pledged to defend the security of Shanghai until thave has been an offic ial statement made, pointing out that while Chinese reprosentation on the Council was endorsed by the ratepayers in 1927, such representation cannot now be discussed for the simple reason that changed conditions have made it impossible, 'The agitation against the rates is going' to be carried far beyond Shanghai as one phase of the general anti-foreign campaign, jand the wi abroad is going to be "taxation without repressentation." ° Unless we want, therefore, to discover shortly that the whole Occident endorse es a scheme of things which would provide for representation on the Council of the forces devoted to the ruin of Shanghai's administration and pledged to anti-foreign endeavour, we must face squarely the fact that bona fide representation of the Chinese commercial community in the Settlement is at the moment utterly impossible, and we want a frank statement from the council showing why it is impossible.
About twenty-one years ago the Chinese community within the Settlement was offered representation on the Council and refused it in alarm, The reasons were at once made clear. The administration was excellent, and whenever into conflict in any way officialdom in the entire the Settlement, the position that it took was in support of the public weal and in opposition to official ambitions which ran counter to the community's welfare, Those were days when the merchant of standing had Jgreat concern for his "face" and no prominent Chinese resident jof the Settlement would have had the face to take a seat on the Council and then use his position to work in with local officialdom against the welfare the Settlement. At the same t/time none of them had the courage to take a post which, if coniscientiously filled, would inevitably bring him into conflict with officialdom and jeopardize his interests and connexions beyond the boundaries of the Settlement. The same conditions, intensified tenfold, remain to-day barrier between the big element in this Settlement whose participation in the administra
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.