July 31.
At the risk of somewhat boring. readers, further reference must be made to the possibility of the rickshaw owners bringing about a holdup of rickshaw traffic in their struggle with the Municipal Council over the question of registration of ownership, and the other reforms which it is intended to enforce in the near future. Passing reference was made, in a leading article on' Saturday on the subject of the possible strike, to the need for pro-Paganda amongst the rickshaw coolies in order that they should be fully apprised of the fact that the innovations which the Council were introducing through the Rickshaw Board were being enforced in their own best interests. Inquiries made by members of the staff of the "North-China Daily News" some short while ago elicited the information that the rickshaw pullers interviewed knew nothing of the dispute which was raging, nor of the Rickshaw Pullers Union which was supposed to be whole-heartedly in support of the Rickshaw Owners: Association. When informed of what the Municipal Council was. endeavouring to do for them, they. became enthusiastic in support of the proposals, for no one save, the man who wears the shoe knows exactly where and how much it pinches. The Rickshaw Owners appear to have devoted their earlier propaganda to an attempt to spread uneasiness in the minds of the ratepayers as to the dire results likely to accrue from a continuance of the policy which the Council had rightly adopted. Obsecure meetings of a few rickshaw coolies, obviously under the influence of the owners, Passed resolutions supporting the latter, which were speedily published for the benefit of the ratepayers who it was hoped would be duly impressed with the possibility of something unfortunate happening *|and would waver in the support which they were giving the Council. These tactics now appear to have undergone a change and the latest reports indicate that they are devoting their attention to the, rickshaw pullers in exactly the manner which was forecast in the editorial article published on Saturday. It was there suggested that the Council might be very well advised to devote considerable attention to this side of the matter, and point has since been added to the suggestion by the latter from Mrs, Ayscough which appeared in the correspondence columns yesterday.
Indeed in all the letters which appeared on that day there are points which deserve consideration by the authorities to whose attention they are earnestly commended. Mr.
Tsao pleads eloquently for compromise, but it is possible that he will agree that the time for compromise on the part of the Council passed when the Rickshaw Owners commenced their campaign of fiance. That the latter by their bombast and defiance have placed themselves in a position from which they cannot recede without loss of face is unfortunate, but, nevertheless,.no concern of the Municipal Council whose duty it is to see that the wishes of the ratepayers are carried out and their authority, which has been challenged, defini: rely vindicated. Mr. Tsao will realiza that the Council have not moved hurriedly in the matter and that they have rightly or wrongly—it can Be conceded now, wrongly,—been accused of dilatoriness, that delay the rickshaw owners had plenty of time in which to adapt themselves to the new conditions if they had not busied themselves in planning a resistance which should result in only one thing—abject failure. J. C, on the other hand, places a finger lightly on another aspect of the matter which is of no little importance. He diplomatically suggests that the owners, refusing to allow their vehicles out to the pullers, will soon reduce them to a state of desperation as the principal sufferers, and suggests that the Rickshaw Mission might be @ worthy cause for charity dur-Ing the next month or so when unemployment may reduce them to almost starvation point, Whether the mission would be an ideal means of meeting the diiculty which may arise is unimportant compared with the fact that the owners are depending upon the hunger of the coolies to bring about those disorders which they so glibly threaten, and the authorities may have to consider whether steps should not be taken in this connection to see that an innocent class subjected to the tugging of devil and baker alike, should have something done for them to alleviate possible suffering. Tt is clearly in the interests of the rickshaw owners, whose regard for the pullers has never been of the ten-detest, to see that the latter are reduced to the greatest possible deprivation as an incentive to stir up the threatened disorder.
From the flood of letters which have been published on this matter during the past four months the authorities may remain convinced that they are backed with an amount of public support which should give them the greatest possible confidence in dealing with this dispute, and in handling the emer gencies which may arise. They may also be sure, from recent dev clopments, that a campaign of deliberate untruth has already been started against them, and that, as has already been pointed out they are being pictured for the delectation of the rickshaw coolie as the wicked uncle in all this business, The circular issued to the pullers by the Chinese Rickshaw Owners Association is a mass of prevarication. The money to be collected for relief work amongst the pullers is represented as depriving the man of eight to twelve cakes a day, suggesting that the Council is' bent upon robbing the man of food, which it is a fact he cannot now obtain, and, what is more, never has been able to. It was not to be expected that the owners would abstain from endeavouring to show the proposed reforms in anything but the worst possible Light, or that they would refrain from the use of (Continued on page 161.)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.