Sept. 12.
Recolizetions evoked by the death of Sir Edward Pearce i evitably lead to comparisons between his time and ours. Sir Edward was almost the last representative of what may be! called the grand days of Shanghai. From the outset he took: the line normally marked out for the young men of his day. Before the newcomer of the cighties and nineties were set the same opportunities and respon-ities—on the one hand, a reasonable hope of climbing to the private office of his firm; on the other, a definite idea of duty to the community in which he was to live. We know how ardently Sir Edward Pearce responded to the call, what enthusiasm he brought to every. Javocation. He was a man of sagacious brain and far sight. [Once only, we think, he had the ratepayers against him, over the proposed sale of the Electricity Department. Feeling ran high Jand it may have been that his scheme was not perfectly understood. But assuming for argument's sake that he was wrong, is a small thing to set against long a career of distinguished public service.
But in contrasting past and we are rather concerned with systems and circumstances than with personalities, Sir Edward was not the first great public servant of the community and we are not so pessimistic as to suppose he will have been the last. To say that times have changed is a mere truism of all human institutions, But assuredly the changes that have come over Shanghai in the past ten years have no parallel in any previous period of equal length, except, perhaps, the almost my-tical times of the Taiping Rebellion, when the International Settlement acquired the germ of that shape to which many of its present difficulties are traceable. Alterations in method have come about which call for serious reflection, Cer have been [status of the chairmanship of the Council, with which ind nobody is inclined to quarrel, remembering what heavy burldens that office imposes, but which are bound to affect its character. Without forgetfulness of services rendered, with all gratitude where it is s0 amply Jdeserved, it must frankly be said that anything in the a permanent chairmans) be deprecated and is indeed foreign to the traditions of The duties of the position are too great to be borne indefinitely without risk of staleness; and even the Kes fof knowledge of precedent may come to be outweighed by the desirability of new blood. There is an unmistakeable feeling that where the Council used to govern, it is now prone to chaffer and that adroit expedients are too often employed to smooth lover temporary unpleasantness, fand at too high an ultimate price. No one underrates. the [value of timely conciliation. But there are occasions when it runs perilously near to the line of least resistance. An emphatic "no" may cause a rumpus when it is delivered. But in the tong ran it may prove far more politic than a supple compromise which deceives nobody and earns no thanks anywhere.
It is proverbial easy for out siders to criticize. payers grumble, they forget their own increas dency to leave things the Council's unquestioned manasement. Can anyone think of a single topic on which it would lbe possible to get together a Jquorum for a special meeting of ratepayers? Yet the past contains many examples of such meetings, not to mention the amount of public criticism forthcoming at the "annual parliaments." If the trend to-day more and more towards bureaucratic government, ratepayers as bods cannot exonerate themselves from all the blame therefor. But there was never a.time when the long vision was more urgently called for than it is now. Rightly or wrongly a fe ing is prevalent of living fro hand to mouth, of dificult being staved off rather than resolutely faced, of trusting, Micawber-like, to future happy chance to save our heritage. Little by little our rights are being undermined. The un= checked functioning of Chinese {tax-collectors in the Settlement (a liberty which may easily degenerate into serious /licence), the running of an official propaganda bureau, the agitation Jagainst the continuance of the barbed wire defences, and other idants that could be quoted, may seem individually small things in themselves, but taken together they constitute a formidable massed attack on the integrity of the Settlement, And that manquvre cannot be met by negotiation. It is time to stop the rot, to say firmly, as has been said repeatedly in the past, even in moments of great tension, "This we cannot allow fand we will not discuss it," to decide for ourselves and to make plain to all the world where and fon what we stand. Some two years ago the Council mapped out an admirable scheme of policy which it thought should be adopted towards certain great questions likely to become pressing ere long. It would be well to know whether this scheme has been properly brought to the attention of Governments abroad land what, if any, is their sponse, for already we seem in divers ways to be getting perilously ahead of it. Not only are foreigners anxiously concerned,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.