2 March 22, The time between the election of the new Shanghai Municipal Council and the retirement of the old Council on the termination of the Annual Meeting of the Ratepayers! has been shortened this year by the! simple process of fixing the latest possible dates for the nomination of candidates. Next Saturday is the appointed nomination day. For the nine vacancies for foreign members nine names have so far emerged. Mr. C. S. Franklin, the Vice-Presi dent of the present Council, with Mr, W. H. Plant, are understood to the accepted representatives the American community, Mr. Taku Urabe and Mr, Takeo Yamamoto, the present Japanese members, have, after some hesitation, agreed slond for re-election. Of the remaining present members, Mr. Harold Porter alone has signified his Feadiness to stand again and with Mr, V. St. J. Killery, a former member of the Council' and Mr. R. G.
MacDonald, Mr. W. S. King and Mr, F. N. Matthews, completes the panel of five chosen by a "straw vote" of the British ratepayers to be nominated for the seats at] resent held by British members. If there are no other nominations submitted during the week, no polling will be necessary. It is, of course, impossible to state definitely that a' contest will be avoided for! until noon on Saturday it is open to any properly supported candidate to stand. Still, there is a general belief that as the nominees mentioned have all received the endorsement of communal selection in advance, they are not likely to be challenged. On the whole this avoidance of a contest will be welcome, It gives the best promise of preserving an equable atmosphere at a time when anything calculated to impair the spirit of international ce-operation is to be deprecated. 'The new Couneit will, so far as can be judged, comprise only four members at present serving: Mr, Franklin, Mr. Porter, Mr. Urabe and Mr. Yamamoto, Mr. H. EH. Arnhold, the chairman' and Aoyen of the Council, General E. Macnaghten, Mr. A. D. Calhoun, Mr, W. J. Keswick and Mr. G.
Council on that score has not been so much with aims as with methods end, as It seemed, ill-advised modes expression. Of the personal ability or disinterestedness. of the Council itself there has not been Question. This view is all the more willingly recorded because ground has been perceived for the conviction that the importance of presorying the morale and integrity of the permanent civil service of the Seltlement is receiving firmer attention than seemed probable a few months ago.
There can be no doubt that the financial situation called for drastic action and. the incoming Council will possibly have reason ta. be grateful to their predecessors. for the energy shown in tackling that i, problem. Nevertheless it will be hoped by many people that the Settlements administration can be soon assured of the removal of restrictions which have tended to create an undesirable feeling of defeatism, if not of despair. It should be remembered that the Council has in its normal procedure an efficient instrument for maintaining the balance between the requirements of the spending departments and the resources available to meet them. Special crises may justify special devices either to placate public opinion or to accelerate the sometimes slow-moving administra tive machine in one direction or another. It will be good to know that the period of special crises has} passed and that the Settlement's affairs can be treated, as they normally should be treated, in a spirit of confidence in the Councils long and honourable record, of pride in the standards of municipal doney set up by its permanent staff and of faith in the future of Shang-thai, whatever political adjustments and_changes may accrue as the years pass. It is to the credit of the outgoing Council that, in spite of its preoccupation with the prob-Jem of retrenchment, it has by several decisions registered a healthy belief in its responsibility for the welfare of the community in the wider sense of municipal government, Its establishment of Housing Committee, whose report shortly to be published, affords a useful example of that progressive trend in its policy. On that account lone the new Council should enter upon its task in buoyant expectaney. If the portents are favourable and, for the first time, be—but usually is not—truthful and]
it seldom knows what a mean is can certainly be mean, although its author will be sure' to forestall criticism with the classic reservation: mot mean what you mean." Let it be left at that so that the equinox which fs supposed to divide the hours equally between night and day, to the confusion of all who try to burn the candle at both ends, may come into the picture.
The vernal—to friends, Spring—Jequinox gives a point by which the right ascensions and longitudes of the heavenly bodies can measured. Possessed of that knowledge how simple might it not be for humanity to gauge the re-Tevances of nostrums and potions which it is now blindly accepting from the origins of states manship? Governing the equinox the merry process of nutation or nodding. Lord Burleigh, one of the statesmen of a golden age, habitual used the nod to fil in awkward gaps in his conversation with prin~ cipal ities and powers. He must have somehow tumbled on this fequinoetial_mode, but, being far feannier than the Scotsmen whom used to outwit, he never attempted to show how his. tricks were done. He did not even write memoirs for the syndicated press to prove that his nutation had won the war or had made democracy safe for the world to handle, convinced was he that nothing was. to be gained by letting the microphone know what the telephone told him that he deliberately allow. ed fantastic myths to gather round the fair name of the equinox to which he secretly paid oblation. One of them remains to this day: timid travellers are led to believe that equinoctial gales lie in wait for them on the ocean and not even /Mr. 'Thomas Cook with all his persuasiveness and logic can shatter that theory by showing, from carefully compiled records at Siccawei that there are fewer gales and storms during the periods of the equinox' influence than at any other: time in the year. Lord Burleigh had nodded' all' too well; the fequinoetial gales passed into the current gossip of the centuries, celebrated in song and hallowed by the copious literature of seasick remedies. The classic rhyme of the young fellow who fell. overboard Into the middle of the sharks and whales, could never have secured its hold on the imagination of an Mitchel, find themselves unable to stand for re-election, owing to their probable departure' on leave or other personal reasons, Their experience will be much missed. This} excellent work will, no doubt, re~ ceive appreciation when the time comes.
Tt will be many years since an incoming Council included so large a proportion of newcomers. On two occasions in the distant past it is believed that the change of Councils involved a complete! change in personnel, but usually the newcomers have been in a minority. The frequently heard demand for new blood has been emphatically met this year, albeit by the whim of coincidence rather than design for had the four retiring members been able to give further time to the Council's affairs there is no reason fo believe that they would have taited to secure election. Yel, if newcomers they are, the proposed nominees are all men who have had Jong experience of—Shanghai's public affairs in many capacities. No doubt the conditions may seem little strange to them al frst 'The permanent ofleials may have to indulge in more elaborate explana tions in putting up cases to a Council which cannot so heavily' draw on past experience of Committee and Council meetings. 'This may have its advantages as well as! lis disadvantages; there may be a slower pace set' in the Council's deliberations, but there may also be a tendency to take stock which in itself is often a salutary operation. The outgoing Council has had a difficult year. it is by no means certain that it will have completely, disposed of the issues arising from its financial commitments. It has! taken heroic measures to balance: its budget and the indications are! that it will succeed without being. forced to resort to increased taxa-a conerete agreement has been reached on one aspect of that stubborn political problem the adminis tration of the outside roads areas, the Council, in handing over charge to {ts successor, will have every reason to be satisfied with its year's Tabours and to invite public approval accordingly.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.