Apr. 21, The ceremony of installing the new Chinese Councillors and Committee-men has taken place and we hope it may prove the beginning of a new and happy era. The men elected have been well chosen and their fellow residents, both foreign and Chinese, look to them now with an eagerness it would be impossible to exaggerate. They may rest assured that they will find their foreign colleagues more than ready to meet them half way, They will be able to exercise an influence out of all proportion to their numbers, And thus a great responsibility is theirs, They must realize and show they realize, as foreigners have long done, that no division can be drawn between the two main sections of the community. The interests of Shanghai are an equal care for all alike. As Councillors they will have to stand by the Council in rough times and smooth, to incur tige, to accept duties launing rights, Their admission to share in the government of Shanghai is an experiment for! which Chinese have none of th experience of tradition, and it is for them to justify it or to bring matters to a sad collapse.
These things must be said frankly because much has been rd on the Chinese side which argues still much misunder= standing. Mr. Vu Ya-ching, for instance, speaking at the Chinese Ratepayers' Association on April 3, implied that the Council "agreed to admit three Chine Councillors" in 1927 as a quid pro quo for the Chinese agree ing to pay the extra rates. This is entirely inaccurate, the addition of the Chinese councillors having been voted by the rate payers in April 1926. Again, in the address adopted by the Chinese Ratepayers, of which we published a translation yesterday, it was said "that many obstacles had had to be faced and members were compelled to make great sacrifices." We know nothing about sacrifices. But the obstacles faced by the pro pective Chinese councillors ar among their own countrymen and it is not the fault of any foreigner that they have not been sitting on the Council for two years past. "Face" no doubt has to be allowed for in all this and possibly a general delusion that to be on the Council is a paying job. Actually it means more kicks than ha'pence: indeed there are no ha'pence at all, as councillors must drop their own work to attend to that of the community. We do not fear that the new Councillors will fail to recognize their responsibilities, and we wish them success, Toxvo, Shiger Apr. 19:—Mr, Yoshita, Consul-General at Mukden, has been appointed Japanese Minister to Norway, Denmatk ort Finland.—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.