Aug 16 THE attempt by Chinese officials of Chekiang to collect a police tax from householders on Mokanshan may not take a very high place among the sorrows of consuls and diplomats in China. But it is certainly serious matter for the Mokanshan community present and prospective; and as an example of the attempts, of which there are now too many, to override and deny foreigners' well established and reasonable rights, it deserves attention. From the statement which appears on the opposite page it will be seen that the discussions _between the Association and the Wukong Magistrate and Hangch.w authorities have. been conducted with the greatest courtesy. Indeed relationships between Chinese officials and foreigners at Mokanshan have ever been most pleasant, since twenty-six years ago when the latter were first given permission to acquire land and build on Mokanshan. And it would be most regrettable that anything should mar this friend-lines. But we think none the less that the Association is perfectly right in resisting the tax.
It is, in the first place, difficult to see why police should be needed on Mokanshan. There never were any there until, during the war, the mountain became place of voluntary internment by some Germans, when a few police were sent up in addition to the handful of soldiers who had always been there. -This excuse has, of course, ceased but not the police; on the contrary there are more of them than ever this year. It cannot be said that they. offer, anything commensurate with what they would charge. The Chinese community of the district are exceedingly peaceful and well behaved; the Association does all the maintenance work that the police offer and probably does it better than they would; and while the police would "Wwatch'? the houses, they would not relieve householders of the cost of caretakers. And for a summer occupancy of three months, it would appear that householders are to support the "police all the year round.
There are two further important points. While there is no precedent for such a tax, it would undoubtedly, if ones -imposed, establish a precedent in other places and for other purposes, of far-reaching effect, which might prove highly inconvenient to the consuls of the various nationalities involved. And again, we all know what the thin end of the wedge means in the Far East. The intention of the desired tax may today be perfectly innocent. But that would not prevent it another day from being used as evidence of Chinese rights of control in the management of the community's affairs to the detriment of the Association's responsibility. No one on the mountain, of course, desires to exclude Chinese or deny them equal share in the pleasures of the resort; but there is no gainisayjng the fact that it was originally allotted to foreigners as a place where they ight seek recreation in the summer, managing it for themselves and after their own fashion, always with due regard for their Chinese neighbours. Such it has always been and the Association, reinforced by '"'ole custom,"' naturally wish to keep it so. The best solution would be -to remove the police, Boety
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.