To the Editor of the Nowru-Ciiwa Danny News."
'Sim,—"Reject the Budget" chosen us the title of this writing in order to embarrass the Council, but io exprenly used for inviting zame "definite indication' tothe ratepayers and the public to give Council that they ave not agreeable to the present extravagant scale of public expenditure, and refuse to ratify it.
The budget for 1928 has remarkable features, for it ts the largest Dudget of taxation and expenditure during the worst period of business depression in the modern history of Shanghai, and it is the first budget in the history of the International Settlement of Shanghai in whose reparation and approval Chinese representatives have collaborated with foreigner The Increase of a The purpose of this writing is to try and call attention tothe prodigal scale of public expenditure, and to focus public interest upon the large increase of taxation of all_descriptions, supporting these premises with relevant facts and figures, and offering a suggestion 43 a practical measure for curtailing present ideas and methods which past experience has shown to be efficacious.
Phe pinch upon the poor of prodigality in public affairs at the tmp in the lever which gives power to the political propagandist, Obviously, mere extravagance in municipal expenditure is not the only cause for the labour unrest that is part of daily life, but it is, one of the causes because it sets ain example and a standard, That is why I respectfully ure ratepayers to remember they are stewards of the inarticulate and ignorant masses, just ay councillors are stewards for the ratepayers, his personal figures of the increase which he has had to pay during the past seven years.
In support of these general dications and comparisons, herewith some figures in bulk bearing upon the same matter:—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.