aug. 8.
In some illustrated—British weekly we recently came upon jan interview with the veteran comedian George Robey in which ithe interviewer pretended, as, they have all done for countless Jgenerations, to be vastly surprised by the serious-mindedness fof the professional funny man. un this instance, however, Robey was not only serious but sane! land made some remarks upon the tendencies of the times which were decidedly worth reading. In commenting on the spirit of the age which waxes so sentimfontal over the under dog and exalts the unfit, he said that the public seemed almost to think! that success was something to asi was adver established rights and that we Jare much more inclined, therefore, to advertise our hardships abroad and impress our rights upon on? another, in the hope that someone will take care of jus, than we are to organize for vigorous fight in our own defense. For every one person whg wants to know why we do Met do something for ourselves, there are always a hundred who want to know why the Powers not do something for us. We are loud in our statements of Jour right to protection, but we Ido absolutely nothing to demonstrate that we are worth protecting, unless it is to appeal to the investor abroad by pointing out what a splendid establishment jwe built up here when the way iwas easy and the burden light. Our only conception of defence is to advertise our miseries suf-{ficiently that some Government, moved by the spirit of the age, will decide that we are incap-Jable enough of holding up our jond to be entitled to the tender solicitude that is now lavished jupon failures.
Now it used to be that when individuals, or communities or nations were in dire straits, those that got sympathy in the form of substantial material support, were the ones that put, up desperately hard fight in their own defence. Times have chan jed somewhat, and it may be that} if we can paint a sufficiently woeful picture of our difficulties we shall at the end, or near it, lbe rescued as effectually though we had shown some disposition to take care of ourselves; but we are inclined to think that if we were now showing more independence of spirit, more determination to stand up for the rights that we know are essential to our survival, we! should not have to wait "until lwo were. gasping our last as a community to get material: supplace to make recommend: ons that would give the Municipal Council the moral courage 0 assume leadership, as it should, jin our defence, leaving the Pow-Jers to follow or stand aloof i in whatever order they liked. I this attitude i not discredited in so way, if Shanghai is not] shamed into' concerted action, but prefers to go on relying meekly and weakly upon. th Jwhimsical favour of governments that are busy catering ithe elements that exalt failure Jand sob over the unfit at Home, Shanghai is not worth saving land the quicker we leave it to the Reds or the Pinks to ruin th shorter the agony.
The meekness of Hankow in ithe face of the O'Malley agree-iment, the supine attitude of the British community in, Tientsin towards the proposed retroceslsion of the Concession are in keeping with the spirit of th times and have elicited from abroad precisely the respect and material support that they deserve. Shanghai is trundling' Jgently down the same easy road ito Avernus. No one is rude uncouth enough to put brake! 8 jon, If a Chamber of Commere" Jwere to gather and resolve that Shanghai could not go the way of Hankow and that the nonsense to stop, someone jialism and we should all blush for shame, because Moscow ha: taught us that Imperialism If our governments) [cannot off the spell that this Jdecadent Muscovism has thrown lover them, we ought to experiment a. little in an appeal to other and sturdier elements ji Jour homelands through tactic: Jother than lamb-like resignation 10 fate.
If we cannot work up either. the courage or the energy, for a radical change in'attitude Shanghai is not worth saving and it will not be saved.
Ihave the direct testimony of man who sent ten yards of ex: pensive silk in a parcel which the addressee received and opel led to find it stuffed with Chines! newspapers. We have been hearing for months of persons who did not receive the copies of our. "China in Chaos" that were posted locally. We do not need to remind either the postal authorities or our readers that the Io. P. 0. is allowed to function in this Settlement on the as; [sumption that it is a public con venience and that, when evi dence begins to accumulate show that it is an organ for tht expression of turbulent "Nation# talism," the Municipal Council Met only could invite it to find quarters elsewhere but, unde the pressure of public feeling backed by sufficient evidence, would have to do so, 'The: most-serious feature.-of Ithe whole' situation, however, the confession clearly implied: the bonn that is put upon: usj that the Chinese Postal Service is mo more an united service than the Chinese Republicatt Government is a single responsible government of China, and jis no more entitled to interna: tional recognition than the severalvgovernments from which recognition has been withdrawn lor withheld. While the postal service functioned outside and jin spite of local disruptions, guaranteeing safety to mails and [guarding its patrons against a bitrary discrimination, the International Postal Union could afford to ignore the fact that it had behind it as guarantor, no such thing as a Chinese state. Once any single commissioner penly confesses to multiple authority by taking orders from a local' outlaw military clique and by permitting the agents of that clique to meddle.with the mails, he advertises the fact that the vice is no Jonger a unit, bu is.as much at the. merey effect upon" Chinese: economic life and? foreign interests of all resy7it does not: seem at all lit that at least ninety-five -per' cent. of the foreigners here and abroad who are watching developments with anxious interest should be wholly ignorant of the contents of the book, og though a man lived in the England of Cromwell's time and attempted to understand the) meaning of the Roundhead revol tution while remaining wholly' ignorant of the nature or contents of the Bible, or as though' one tried to understand the political history of the Near East) without some knowledge of the personality and teachings of Mahomet.
Some little time ago we came in touch with a veteran mission-avy of recognized Chinese' scholarship who, as a refugee in Shanghai from his looted and burned establishment in the interior, had started to translate! the "Three Principles" because} he thought as we did that the foreign public here and elsewhere ought to be familiar with the quality of Dr, Sun's teachings so that they could more) accurately appraise the quality of the Kuomintang's much advertised "Nationalism." An exmination of the first few chapters convinced us at once that a publication of the full text was neither necessary nor worth While, 'The amount of repetition is enormous and by actual test we found that each chapter—or! Jecture—could be cut down to' little more than a fifth of its length without omitting a single essential thought or doing Dr. Sun any injustice. What we, therefore, proposed to publish was a literal translation of excerpts m each of the sixteen lectures. The circulation of such a translation abroad without some comment upon the errors in fact with which the series abounds and upon which. recise words because he put it ore. effectively, but they convey his-sense, and it is an observation on the inclination' of the which we strongly endorse.
Throughout all modern nations ithe feeling is creeping that the Iman who struggles with courage ind determination for something! fa little better than the average is less entitled to whatever prize Ihe wins than the weakling who Jabandons effort and confesses failure is entitled to be kept, land well kept at that. - The glory that used to be associated with a good fight is no longer denied the exponent of compromise, conciliation and defeatism. The rights of those who refuse to corn them are more widely acknowledged than the rights of those who have. ac~ lauired something worth while Jat real risk and through physicfal and mental stress and strain.
[In the industrial world, for instance, the once notorious I. W. W's frank opposition to the principle of "an honest day's wage for an honest day's' work" used to be unique and scandal-Jous. This position is now very much in the fashion in every The right Jof the loafer, the criminal and ithe coward to an equal share in all the good things of life is not, lonly endorsed -by Communism but by a popular sentiment which shapes the policies of the Anglo-Saxon peoples.
We have long pointed out that] China's assumption of rights, which she cannot or will not learn, does not move the Occidlental peoples to retorts which they would have made a gener-lation ago, because the Occident has become accustomed at Home to the shirker demanding his full share of the virile and courageous man's earnings; but we probably have not ' sufficiently impressed upon the foreign communities in China the fact that they too have caught the contageous spirit that-moves Young China to assertions of un-! spirited. and swell. conducted fight in self-defence. - The integrity and security of this community, the prosperity and leven the existence of this port, jate being attacked from a doz-and not one jon has met to voice more than a pathetic plaint about it or to issue any kind jo call for concerted resistance. In a feeble, ineffectual way we jet it be known abroad that we do not like it, but we have not given the Occidental Governments reason to believe that Jare going to put up the slightest) resistance even though the commercial life of Shanghai is extinguished and steamers get in the habit of passing us by. We have a-ratepayers' organization, Jo volunteer corps, chambers of every nationality and a general' chamber, societies and clubs galore, but not a single group lof any' sort has had the courage to announce publicly that disapproves of blackmail and kidnapping in the—Settlement, that it does not relish the imposition of illegal taxes by an outlaw local administration, that it resents the suggestion Nationalist" tariff autonomy) land the increased tonnage dues, that it would approve of resist~ lance to the control and abuse of ithe Post Office and the Customs within the Settlement, or that it! idoes not think that German shipping is being dealt with fairly.
We do not seem to feel that it] would -be quite respectable, in view of the vogue of failure abroad and the official approval which our governments put upon compromise with any evil rather than defence against it, to come out and say in so many words that if no Power is going to take care of us, the Powers generally will please give us enough elbow room that we can fight for ourselves, It seems tact-hess and crude for any group of, residents with a stake in the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.